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Nedlac's first Executive Council meeting of the year focused on the 2003/2004 budget, with a presentation from the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, and an opportunity for constituencies to engage with the Minister on various aspects of the budget. Parties also reconfirmed their commitment to the forthcoming Growth and Development Summit and discussed how to take forward the preparations for the Summit.

Minister Trevor Manuel was joined by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Mandisi Mpahlwa, the Director-General of the National Treasury, Maria Ramos, and several other senior treasury officials. Government's delegation to Nedlac was led by Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, and included the Minister of Public Works, Stella Sigcau. Labour's delegation was led by the General Secretary of Cosatu, Zwelinzima Vavi, the General Secretary of Sactwu, Ebrahim Patel, General Secretary of Fedusa, Chez Milani and Cunningham Ngcukana, General Sectretary of Nactu. The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of Business South Africa, Attie du Plessis, whilst business inputs were made by Patrice Motsepe, President of Nafcoc, Professor Raymond Parsons, overall convenor for business in Nedlac, and Rudolf Gous of Rand Merchant Bank. The community delegation was led by Fadila Lagadien of Disabled People of South Africa, and included representatives from the Women, Youth, Co-operatives and Civics sectors.

The overall response from the Nedlac constituencies to the budget was positive. The disability sector raised a few specific issues, such as requesting that excise duties that are to be removed from computers, also be removed for technology accessories, such as Braille printers, which are still very expensive.

Business welcomed the increase in spending and the widening of the deficit, and said that this had been made possible because the amount spent on servicing debt had been brought down. Business encouraged the constituencies to see the budget as being a platform which would be used to build on in terms of achieving even higher levels of growth, and called for tangible constructive suggestions to be put forward for discussion at the Growth and Development Summit.

Labour said that the budget had many positive features. It welcomed particularly the reduction of tax on retirement funds. Whilst welcoming income tax reductions, labour queried what the opportunity cost of R13 billion in tax refunds was in terms of spending that could be allocated to job creation and to health, particularly HIV/AIDS treatment. It called for the speedy resolution of the outstanding issues around the draft Framework Agreement on the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS, in order to provide a policy basis for extra resource allocation.

The Executive Director of Nedlac, Phillip Dexter, reported on the main issues which would occupy Nedlac's agenda in 2003. These include

a. The HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Plan
b. The Growth and Development Summit
c. Metals and Engineering Sector Summit
d. Chemicals Sector Summit
e. Construction Sector Summit
f. Transformation of the Financial Sector Post summit processes
g. ICT sector post summit processes
h. SMMEs
i. Black Economic Empowerment
j. NEPAD
k. Co-operatives

Labour suggested that Nedlac also had an important role to play in supporting the implementation of agreements reached at the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC). The ECC, which consists of representatives nominated by the Nedlac constituencies, makes recommendations to the Minister of Labour on issues such as sectoral determinations on minimum wages for farm and domestic workers. Nedlac needed to help ensure that there was broader constituency understanding of, and support for these recommendations

With regards to the Growth and Development Summit, Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, reported that his Ministry and Department would be responsible for driving the Summit from the side of government. He said employment would be a key element of the Summit. All parties agreed on the need to speed up the preparations for the Summit. Government needed to confirm the themes that had been agreed by the Nedlac task team, which would allow separate task teams on those issues to begin meeting and reaching core agreements.

Enquiries: Jennifer Wilson, Communications Coordinator, Nedlac, (011) 328-4211, 083 652 8524

Issued by Nedlac, 28 February 2003