Hon Speaker, I thank the hon President for the response. In the question I did indicate that labour legislation was one of the factors, and not the only factor, that impacted on the low economic growth.
Mr President, during your reply to the debate on Budget Vote 1 - The Presidency, you focused largely upon unrest and labour issues in the mining sector and their impact on the economy. This was justifiable, and is still justifiable, given the vast contribution that the mining sector makes to our GDP. However, recent data that has been released in regard to small and medium enterprises suggests that these enterprises contribute about half of the total employment and more than 30% of the GDP.
Yet the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Labour Relations Act sometimes impose regulations that constrain the growth of our SMME sector. In today's edition of the Business Day newspaper we see data confirming that "the current slow economic growth is hurting job creation".
Government has a responsibility to ensure that everything should be done not to make the strong weaker but, importantly, to make the weak stronger. It is in this regard that my question to the President is: Do you not think, Your Excellency, that it is prudent to move swiftly to deregulate some of the existing labour constraints currently in place on small businesses and sole proprietorships? Thank you.