Abstract
M.Phil.
The Social Plan is an alternative retrenchment process to section 189 of the
Labour Relations Act No. 66 of 1995 as amended. When the now defunct
Mpumalanga Development Corporation was dismantled in 1997, following the
speech of the then Premier of the Province, of the 5 th December 1996, South
Africa saw the Social Plan route being followed for the first time in its short
democratic history.
While the Social plan is the better of the two routes, it still looks good on paper,
but has been let down by the trade unions, the employers, the development
corporations and the individual beneficiaries themselves in this case. The sad
part of this is that the Government departments and the development
corporations are the custodians of the objectives sought and enshrined in the
Social plan. Their failure to observe this fact and live up to the expectations it
genders is itself an indictment on these stakeholders.
The dissertation deals with the deeper analysis and findings of the events and
the omissions that took place in pursuit of the implementation of this novel
concept in a real life situation. Definite recommendations are made within the text
that contributes to how the effort can be rescued for the benefit of the
retrenchees and the economy as a whole. The approach in this work has taken the form of a literature review as well as a
field survey. The field survey did not yield a very high sample, but 20
respondents, who are former employees who were retrenched following the
Social Plan route, were interviewed. These respondents had been located in the
former KwaNdebele and former KaNgwane regions of the Mpumalanga Province.
The main problem that resulted in this research was that the country as a whole
is suffering a very high rate of unemployed at 37.5% (according to the 2001
Census Report) in the Mpumalanga Province. While that needs some attention, there is an increase in the retrenchments coming as a result of various global and
domestic factors. These collectively impact the employment situation more
adversely than positively. The social plan being one tool chosen to alleviate the
problems identified in its own self contained rationale for being, has failed to live
up to the expectations of all the stakeholders affected by it.
The experience of the stakeholders in the first attempt to implement the social
plan, have defeated the very objectives of the social plan, which include, inter
alia, the following:
a ...to avoid job losses and employment decline wherever possible. In cases
where large job losses are unavoidable, it would seek to actively manage
retrenchments and ameliorate their effects on individuals and local
economies". The findings in this study revealed that the social plan rather deepened the
problem and exacerbated rather than alleviated it. This adversity is not due to the
nature of the social plan as an approach and a route to meeting the aims of its
creation. It is rather reflective of the way and attitude with which parties to the
social plan failed to apply their best abilities and efforts in its application.
The dissertation also touches on entrepreneurships, Post employment and the
currently raging broad based black economic empowerment drive that has taken
the country by storm in various sectors. The attempt by this drive is to address
the possible acceleration of the integration of black people into business at all
levels and not just at SMMEs or post employment. One could say the whole
BBBEE drive seeks to address even the pre-employment era in the life of a black
South African.