Millennium Labour Council Inauguration, 7 July 2000
Mr. President, Honourable Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am very pleased to be able to speak on behalf of my business colleagues at this historic gathering to launch the Millennium Labour Council.
Mr. President, I wanted to start by saying that the business community shares in the nation's sense of loss of the World Cup bid in Zurich yesterday. There is no doubt we could have run the competition well and we fully supported the bid. As you said yesterday, it is a tragedy for Africa not just South Africa. The manner in which we lost the bid once again emphasises that the world owes us nothing. The solution to our problems lies in our own hands and if anything, it makes today's event even more important. I'm sure it will help us win the next bid.
I thought I might take this opportunity to share some personal reflections on the last three decades of labour relations in South Africa and speculate as to how the MLC can influence the next decade.
I am a third generation steelmaker. My grandfather was a bowler-hatted foreman and my father, believe it or not Mr. President, was a shop steward -before he saw the "light" and joined the staff. I therefore have some credentials on the subject.
My personal involvement with trade unions started in Scotland in the 60's when I was Works Manager of a steelworks. I cut my teeth on Scottish trade unionists - very tough - would make some of my COSATU friends look like "pussycats"!
I was headhunted to come to South Africa in 1969 by Anglo American to run Highveld Steel. Graham Boustred, my boss at that time, insisted I became involved in SEIFSA and so for 30 years I have been closely involved with the South African industrial relations scene.
In the decade of the seventies there were still severe limitations on freedom of association. Nonetheless, there were strong trade unions dominated by leaders such as Ben Nicholson, Tubby Faure and Ike van der Walt.
Under pressure from the business community, the Weihahn Commission was formed towards the end of the seventies. This resulted in legislation that, for the first time, permitted all South Africans to participate in trade unions. It also, incidentally, opened up apprenticeship to all South Africans.
I happened to be President of SEIFSA in 1980 and, at a large gathering in the Johannesburg town hall, introduced the then Minister of Labour, Fanie Botha, when these historic announcements were made.
The 1980's were, therefore, characterised by the formation of and "muscle flexing" by the new powerful trade unions. I remember the establishment of MAWU (now NUMSA) and the federation FOSATU (now COSATU) and, of course, the formation of NUM.
The trade union leaders I remember best from this period were Bernie Fanaroff, of MAWU, Jay Naidoo and Alec Erwin of COSATU, and of course the redoubtable Cyril Ramaphosa. Mr. President, we're now delighted to have Cyril on our side. As the English say, there's nothing like a poacher turned gamekeeper!
There were some bitter moments towards the end of the 80's - none worse than the NUM/gold mines strike.
The beginning of the 90's saw the greatest political changes and our new democracy. Politics robbed the trade unions of many of their leaders and new ones emerged; Mbazima/Sam Shilowa, Zweli Vavi, Ebrahim Patel and Gwede Mantashe to name a few. It also saw extensive new legislation in the labour field and I found myself bumping heads with Tito Mboweni and Sipho Pityana when they were running the Labour Ministry.
Against this background of adversarial activity, you can imagine the surprise, Mr. President, when Charles Nupen said that COSATU had nominated me as one of the South African businessmen they would like to go on a "jol" with to Ireland and Holland!
At this stage, I'd like to pay tribute to Charles Nupen, representing the ILO, for his vision and determination in pursuing a better option for industrial relations. Mr. President, there were two lasting experiences from the trip:
I would therefore expect, Mr. President, that the next decade of industrial relations in South Africa will be characterised by more of a cooperative approach to problems than confrontational. I am sure Nedlac will play an important role in this, ably led by today's Master of Ceremonies, Phillip Dexter. I also think that this new bilateral arrangement fits well into your new programme of consultation with the various working groups covering business and labour.
So far, business and labour have agreed that we have a crisis in unemployment. The next task is to agree a shared analysis of the problems and then finally to look at agreed solutions.
I for one don't underestimate the difficulties and hard work that lie ahead, but we owe it to all South Africans to give it our best shot.
Thank you.