Amid a scourge of company closures and retrenchments having been announced in various industries across South Africa, Select Committee on Economic Development and Trade chairperson Sonja Boshoff has called for a national crisis summit on job losses to be convened.

She explains that a crisis summit on job losses can bring together affected companies, trade unions and provincial and local government to find urgent solutions, including policy levers to help protect jobs, relief on electricity and freight costs for vulnerable manufacturers, faster support for localisation and trade remedies against unfair imports. 

Boshoff implores Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau, as well as Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth and Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams to act immediately to curb mass retrenchments and downsizing by big companies, which Boshoff says has become too routine in the country.

She further calls for Section 189/189A consultations to be strengthened to ensure transparency, proper engagements with employees, fair severance and more retraining and redeployment opportunities.

Boshoff believes regions that are hardest hit by a flurry of retrenchments are the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and the Free State, which now need “targeted economic stimulus, labour absorption programmes and infrastructure to attract investment”.

With the economy already stagnating and being hindered by contradictory policies, Boshoff says workers and communities are counting on decisive leadership.

“These job losses are too many, too frequent and under too much avoidable pressure. We must act now, not just to protect livelihoods but to safeguard South Africa’s industrial future,” Boshoff concludes.