MEDIA ADVISORY

EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR MINISTER EMBARKS ON CONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND DECENT WORK AGENDA IN THE EASTERN CAPE

The Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi accompanied by his Deputy Minister, Boitumelo Moloi will be visiting the Eastern Cape Province on the 6th - 7th March 2020 with the aim to assist with economic transformation in the Buffalo City Metropolitan and Chris Hani District Municipality.

The Minister’s visit commences with a Stakeholder Breakfast Session where he will be engaging with employers in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality engaging on ways in which employers and the Department can work hand in hand to unblock employment opportunities.

The Stakeholder engagement session will be followed by an official opening of the  Departments Satellite Office based at the East London Industrial Development Zone (ELIDZ) premises. The Satellite Office has been operating from September 2019 and has been utilised by companies in the site for all services provided by the Department. Opening this office will be an opportunity for the department to reach out to more employers and clients in the nearby communities who cannot travel to town for services.

The Minister will then proceed to Supported Employment Enterprise factory, a public entity of the Department which caters for persons with disability where he will have a walkabout engaging with the employees and his day will be concluded by a visit to the AbaThembu Kingdom at Qamata Great Place.

On the 07th March 2020, the Minister and the Deputy Minister will run parallel programmes focusing on the Chris Hani District where three farms will be visited to check compliance with labour legislation. The farm visits were preceded by a blitz inspection which targeted employers in the Wholesale and Retail and Farm sectors where investigations were conducted in Basic Condition of Employment Act (BCEA), National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA), Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA), Compensation on Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) as well as the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) in Whittlesea and Cofimvaba.

The Minister will thereafter stopover at a hospice while the Deputy Minister visits the home of Compensation Fund beneficiaries who were injured on duty to hand over assistive devices (prosthesis and wheel chairs) and later join officials at Cofimvaba to engage with clients while services are rendered.

Running concurrently with the Farm visit will be the“Taking Services to the People” campaign where the Department will be rendering services on the spot at Cofimvaba in collaboration with other sister Departments/ Entities/ Organisations. These are aimed at creating awareness and promoting legislative processes driven by the Department whilst strengthening working relations between the Departments’ stakeholders and its clients.  This platform allows the Department an opportunity to bring services closer to the people by creating a one stop shop for its clients. The Department will be bringing its Public Employment Services Unit for registration of workseekers, assist employed/unemployed/under employed people with information as well as registration of claims with the Unemployment Insurance Fund and Compensation Fund while providing information on National Minimum Wage Act.

Other Government Departments/Organisations/Institutions that will be present on the day are Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Department of Home Affairs, Rand Mutual Assurance (RMA), Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) Federated Employer’s Mutual Assurance (FEM), Department of Home Affairs, while Financial Institutions will also be rendering their services on the spot.

Details of the Minister’s visit are as follows:

Employer breakfast session

Date:       06 March 2020

Venue:   East London Golf Club

Time:      08h30-10h30

Official opening of Department of Labour Satellite Office

Venue:   ELIDZ Offices, Lower Chester Rd, Sunnyridge East London

Time:     13h30-14h30

Farm Visits

Date:      07 March 2020

Venue:  Chris Hani District

Farm 1:  Number Two Piggeries

Farm 2:  Mountain Glen Farm

Farm 3: Peace Farm

Time:    Between 09h00 – 11h00

Handing over of assistive devices

Date:      07 March 2020

Venue:  Client 1- Mzwabantu Hospice, Queenstown Client 2 - Queenstown residence

Time:     Between 10h00-12h00

Taking Service to the People

Date:      06 March 2020

Venue:  Cofimvaba Senior Secondary School

Time:     08h00-16h00

Media enquiries:

Ziphozihle Josefu

Provincial Communication Officer

082 308 6306

Issued by Government Communications (GCIS) on behalf of the Department of Employment and Labour

05 March 2020