KZN Legislature hosted its annual Workers’ Parliament in Amajuba District

KZN Legislature hosted its annual Workers’ Parliament in Amajuba District

With the month of May being the Workers’ Month, the KZN Legislature hosted its annual Workers Parliament from the 21st to the 22nd May in Newcastle where workers from the three major federations in the province participated to discuss matters that affect workers as a sector. Delegates came from Cosatu, Fedusa and Nactu to deliberate on this year’s theme “Workers’ Struggle in Addressing Inequality, Creating Employment and Advancing Vulnerable Workers’ Rights”.

The Legislature, through sector parliaments, involves various sectors of society in matters of governance in the province. Workers’ Parliament is one of the sector parliaments initiated by the Legislature to give workers a platform to discuss and debate issues that affect them as a sector.

On the first day of Workers’ Parliament, delegates went into four commissions which were clustered along the lines of provincial government clusters. Commissions were attended by senior government officials and facilitated by chairpersons of Portfolio Committees.

In commissions, workers discussed issues ranging from economic development, job creation, education, health, social protection, rural development, safety and security. Commissions adopted recommendations which were tabled at plenary on the following day for adoption.

The second day of Workers’ Parliament was attended by the Premier, Hon. Senzo Mchunu, Speaker Hon. Lydia Johnson and other MECs. The Speaker welcomed delegates and the public and wished workers successful deliberations during Workers’ Parliament. The Premier addressed the gathering and thanked workers for their contribution to the liberation struggle as well as the transformation of South Africa. He also urged workers to play a bigger role in addressing the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment facing the country.

Delegates from all three major federations used Workers’ Parliament to raise various issues that affect workers in the country. The debates were robust and mostly centred on issues such as rising levels of unemployment, job losses, poverty, casual labour and eradication of labour brokers. Workers Parliament concluded the debates by adopting a set of resolutions that will be forwarded to the Speaker for further consideration by committees of the Legislature. Once considered by relevant committees, the resolutions will be forwarded to the Executive for implementation and action. The Executive will report on the steps taken to implement the resolutions of the 2015 Workers’ Parliament during the next Workers’ Parliament in 2016. Committees will monitor the implementation of resolutions as part of their oversight role over the Executive.