Post-state capture developments to add new dimension to labour relations

Addressing delegates at the 31st Annual Labour Law Conference in Kempton Park this morning, David Lewis, executive director of Corruption Watch, said state capture had put South Africa's young democracy under threat.

“We have to think about how senior political appointees should be removed. They do not have the right to obstruct their own removal,” said Lewis.

“Our liberal democracy is under serious attack. This is manifested, among others, by attacks on the judiciary, vilification of the media and a significant increase in grand corruption.”

He said numerous decision-making institutions in South Africa had been captured over the last ten years, through key political appointments at all levels.

Corruption Watch has received some 24,000 reports on corruption, most of them from small towns across the country.

Time to reconstruct and transform

“Now is the time to absorb the lessons derived from state capture, to reconstruct and to transform,” he said. “We need to look at how democratic norms and ethics can be enforced and how independent oversight can be strengthened. Most importantly, we need to look at how political leadership appointments should be governed.”

Conference chair Professor Alan Rycroft of the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Town says post-state capture developments in terms of public appointments and the termination thereof will add a new dimension to labour relations in South Africa.

The conference, themed ‘The 4th Industrial Revolution: Challenges and Opportunities’, is being attended by labour law and human resource professionals, trade unionists and members of the public service.