If ever there was a clue that there is something fundamentally wrong with our labour legislation, it has to be the current municipal workers strike.

Please tell me - how does a union justify commencing a strike action when the gap between demand and offer is 18% vs 6%, in an environment of inflation running at 5-6%, and there have been precious little gathering at the table to debate the issue?

How can the LRA, and particularly that holy cow of centralised bargaining, legitimately claim it promotes peace and stability in employer/employee relations?

I see Pravin Gordhan has muttered that there may need to be changes to labour legislation if employment creation targets are to be met.

South Africa won't create four million jobs by 2025 on its current growth trajectory unless it changes some labour policies, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Monday.

“This is not enough to make a significant dent in unemployment,” the minister told an internal auditors' conference in Johannesburg.
As it is, I don't see the target of 5 million jobs created by 2025 being enough to ease the economic position of the vast majority of South Africans anyway. As a goal, it should be seen as the soft political sop it really is.

How about a real goal that falls within your term of office, Mr. President - say 2 million real jobs created by the next general elections? Now that would impress me.

More likely Mr. Gordhan is going to be told not to air his personal views in public in future, I think.