{"id":844465,"date":"2025-11-25T10:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=844465"},"modified":"2025-11-25T10:30:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:30:30","slug":"south-africa-can-lose-hundreds-of-thousands-of-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/844465\/south-africa-can-lose-hundreds-of-thousands-of-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa can lose hundreds of thousands of jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trade union Solidarity and the government are officially in a dispute over the wave of retrenchments hitting the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This follows the failure of a mediation process at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEDLAC was established in 1994 by the National Economic Development and Labour Council Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a unique forum that brings together key players in the country to discuss and reach consensus on socio-economic policy and legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the vehicle by which the government, labour, business and community organisations seek to cooperate through problem-solving and negotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity stated that its mediation efforts with the forum were unsuccessful. \u201cNEDLAC will issue a certificate confirming this within two weeks,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity said it will release new information within days about hundreds of thousands of jobs that could be lost before Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are also planning several protests to highlight the seriousness of the problem,\u201d it said in a press statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second round of the mediation process was attended by employers such as Columbus Steel, Ferroglobe, Trans Alloys, Samancor, MMC Nelspruit and Glencore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minerals Council and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) also sent representatives to the mediation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFAPA, the Ferro Alloy Producers Association, made a presentation that contained shocking figures about retrenchments,\u201d Solidarity said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade union highlighted that due to the mediation protocol, the content of the discussions may not be disclosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity declared a dispute against the South African government in terms of section 77 of the Labour Relations Act, regarding the wave of retrenchments earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann explains the situation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann said they hope that progress could be made on the retrenchments through discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this progress does not happen, there will be another work bloodbath before Christmas,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Solidarity\u2019s demands was that a multi-departmental team be formed to address the different elements of the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, the government did not show urgency and was not prepared to hold further discussions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Solidarity, a central theme in recent company retrenchment notices is government failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These failures include issues with rail, road, and port infrastructure, electricity pricing structures, policy-related issues, and overregulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of empowerment and, more recently, the impact of America\u2019s tariff regime, also impacted the South African market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large businesses implicated in Solidarity\u2019s submissions would also be invited to the mediation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High unemployment in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Solidarity\u2019s warning of large-scale retrenchments in South Africa will cause havoc as the country is already battling high unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest data shows that South Africa’s official unemployment rate is 32.6%, while the expanded definition puts it at 41.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Youth unemployment is worse, with job seekers between 16 and 24 facing an unemployment rate of 62.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over three-quarters of unemployed South Africans have been jobless for an entire year. The country has the lowest employment-to-population ratio among all G20 nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This stems from a decade and a half of lacklustre economic growth, dwindling investment, and an increasing skills mismatch between graduates and the jobs market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If South Africa cannot address this challenge, the country\u2019s long-term economic growth will remain flat, resulting in a worsening financial disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is feedback from Coronation\u2019s economics unit, which analysed South Africa\u2019s unemployment crisis in its latest quarterly Correspondent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It noted that unemployment is the greatest reinforcer of inequality. Faster economic growth and increased employment opportunities are the only solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s unemployment rate is among the highest in the world and is significantly higher than that of any comparable-income country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trade union Solidarity and the government are officially in a dispute over the wave of retrenchments hitting the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":834743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[24245,10917,2741,24242,24243,24247,24246,1632,24244],"class_list":["post-844465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-columbus-steel","tag-coronation","tag-dirk-hermann","tag-ferro-alloy-producers-association","tag-ferroglobe","tag-national-economic-development-and-labour-council-nedlac","tag-samancor","tag-solidarity","tag-trans-alloys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844466,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844465\/revisions\/844466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}