NEDLAC Liquor Industry Social Compact

The NEDLAC Rapid Response Task Team established a Sub-Committee on the Liquor Industry Ban to deal with the liquor ban that had been put in place during the national lockdown.

Furthermore, social partners had agreed to enter into a social compact in relation to lifting the ban. Although the liquor industry ban has now been lifted, social partners are still committed to finalising the social compact and to implementing it.

The main objective of the social compact is to achieve the appropriate balance between saving lives and preserving livelihoods in respect of the sale of liquor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BLSA Position Paper on the Role of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Achieving Economic Transformation and Inclusive Growth

On 30 June 2020, BLSA submitted a position paper on SOEs (BLSA Position Paper) in response to the National Planning Commission (NPC) publishing a series of five papers on the role of SOEs in achieving economic transformation and inclusive growth (SOE Papers). In our BLSA Position Paper, we commended the NPC for the study undertaken and the bold proposals made in the SOE Papers.

The SOE Papers sought to assess the contributions of SOEs in achieving the aspirations set for them in the National Development Plan (NDP), more specifically, analysing the specific performance of the three selected SOEs, being Eskom, Transnet and PRASA, against the NDP, market structure, governance and policy considerations and then to synthesize more general lessons for application to other SOEs.

In our BLSA Position Paper, we supported some proposals, noted observations and provided further proposals and recommendations in addition to the ones provided in the SOE Papers. We supported the introduction of a single state ownership policy; the call for greater institutional accountability; and the call for shareholder compacts to be aligned to the NDP and to be legally binding.

Some of our recommendations included further exploration of institutional oversight and governance structures of SOES; alignment of the annual corporate plans and other annual strategic documents with the shareholder compacts; alignment of ministers’ performance contracts with the shareholder compact of the respective SOE and the NDP objectives; and an in depth consideration of funding policies and mechanisms. We further recommended the development of a policy white paper, which should be approved by cabinet, in order to pave the way for the implementation of the recommendations by the NPC.

We also reiterated our commitment, as representatives of Business, to working closely with the state to bring about SOE reform and that we intend to engage with the relevant governmental stakeholders on proposed mechanisms for the effective implementation of the requisite structural reforms in the near future.

COVID-19 Related Documents

All the documents that have been circulated by the BLSA Policy and Legislation Department, for information, during the national lockdown may be accessed at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jzb49q0dtgia599/AAAcxjEHDPR7tZlSUfV1TOKLa?dl=0