Johnathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa has praised the progress of worker ownership and said the government was building a future where every employee held a stake in the success of his or her company and where prosperity is shared by all.
Ramaphosa was delivering an address at the Inaugural Worker Share Ownership conference which was held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on Tuesday, and was joined by the Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel, the chairpersons of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), as well as representatives of labour, business and industry bodies.
Ramaphosa praised the first conference on the state and future of worker share ownership schemes in the country, and said that since 1994, the ANC-led government has made a concerted effort to address the racial and economic injustices of the past.
The President said this year marked 20 years since the promulgation of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, and that despite the efforts made by the government, more needed to be done to ensure effective transformation for the people of the country.
“This is therefore a good time to collectively assess the impact of the enabling legislative environment and examine the learning over the past two decades,” he said.
Ramaphosa outlined the Employee Share Ownership Programmes which were underpinned by the BBBEE Act together with the Competition Act, the Companies Act among others.
He confirmed that the IDC and the NEF provided catalytic funding and said that it provided another means through which the government can contribute towards more equitable ownership in the economy.
Ramaphosa said that a study done by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition found that more than 500 000 workers were part-owners of the companies they work for.
“These are the Tintswalos, the children of democracy, who are striving to give effect to the words of the Freedom Charter that ‘the People shall share in the country’s wealth’,” Ramaphosa said.
The conference was an opportunity to acknowledge the successes of existing employee share ownership programmes, raise awareness about their potential, and explore strategies to promote more of them within and across more sectors, he said.
In conclusion, he congratulated the companies involved in the programmes and said that the government would continue to work to implement such structures in collaboration with their employees.
“It is vital that we harness this spirit of partnership as we chart the course for the future of these programmes and for an even better, more sustainable worker shareholder regime,” Ramaphosa said.
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