Nomakhosazana Meth’s appointment as Minister of Employment and Labour marks a significant policy shift. Notably, she is the first non-union, non-communist minister in this role. Her focus on enterprise development and agriculture aims to stimulate the economy, echoing President Ramaphosa’s urgency for reform.
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Issued by COFESA – Confederation of Employers in South Africa
The appointment of Minister of Employment and Labour, Nomakhosazana Meth signals a major policy shift-
She is the first ‘non-union-non-communist-employment-labour minister’.
A few years back ’Employment’ was added to the name of the Department of Labour- without any notable policy changes.
The recent appointment of the first ‘non-union-non-communist-employment- labour minister’ signals a major policy shift.
She replaces Mr Thembelani Waltermade “Thulas” Nxesi (born 9 June 1959) a former General Secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union from 1995 to 2009 who has been the Minister of Employment and Labour since May 2019 and the Deputy National Chairperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP) since July 2012. A teacher by profession.
Minister Meth has been a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa since 2024, representing the African National Congress. She is unknown to both business and labour but known for her dedication to enterprise development.
Born: 1 July 1966 (age 58 years). Education: University of Fort Hare, University of Pretoria, University of Zululand – Richards Bay campus
Meth has been quoted for her excitement in using agriculture as a key sector to turn around the economy and contribute meaningfully to the GDP to ensure that the President’s ‘Thuma Mina’ are truly ‘operation Khawuleza’ and reinforces what the President said ‘there is no time, we must move and move with speed to deliver services to our people’.
She views agriculture no longer a social welfare program but a business and believes that the only way of changing the economy is to ensure that development targets the rural space and agriculture with that. ‘We want to work with young graduates and farmers to ensure that we engage with people that will be beneficial to this vision’, explained Meth, to ensure that there is food security for our people. Attracting partners, investors and other government departments like Department of Education for the school’s nutrition program, Department of Health for supplying hospitals and other private companies is crucial in turning the situation around” to work with individual and organised farmers to lock offtake agreements for farmers to enable them to supply local supermarkets with their produce’’.
Her vision resonates with President Ramaphosa’s calls for rapid reforms by the new unity government.
Cofesa encouraged her to urgently liberalise labour laws. 60 leading economists, some of them Nobel Prize laureates of the World Economic Freedom Indexes found that 22 m to 30 m job opportunities in SA in a few years and 50 million on the continent are within reach by picking the low hanging fruit of deregulation. Even the poorest 10% in free economies earn 8 times more than those in interventionists states..
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