Low levels of labour productivity were among the most binding constraints on economic growth and on South Africa’s international competitiveness, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has said.

“I cannot help restating the all too obvious fact that all is not well with our labour productivity,” he said in an address at the Wits Business School on Monday evening.

Referring to a report by JSE-listed human capital management group Adcorp, Motlanthe said local labour productivity had declined by 41.2% since 1993.

“Clearly, labour productivity is a critical requirement to the economic growth of all countries and this is all the more so in South Africa, a country beset by socioeconomic problems,” he stated.

He added that low labour productivity was tied to a history of unequal education, a lack of skills and an exclusion from mainstream economic activity, issues that could only be dealt with through the development of education as a long-term solution and improved participation from the private sector.

“Our country needs a private sector that is far more engaged, and the question is whether our private sector can do more than it is currently doing to assist in reaching the national goals of modernisation, reconstruction and development,” Motlanthe said.

The goals of the National Development Plan, he noted, would only be achievable through the support of an engaged private sector, whose role should be seen in the context of a wider dialogue in which labour, civil society and government were engaged.

The private sector’s corporate social investment plans, he added, offered “enormous benefit” in a country characterised by enduring socioeconomic challenges.

“It is in the interests of the private sector that we alleviate our social issues to ensure a sustainable economic outlook on the back of which reconstruction and development can be advanced,” he said, adding that, while government had to lead the way in all respects, the support of the private sector was required to create a united, democratic country.