When the Companies Amendment Bill was published in the Government Gazette, it immediately drew praise from one trade union federation because it would, if passed into law, “confer long-term benefits to organised labour as it seeks to facilitate and promote transparency to allow organised labour to access critical business information and to ensure law-abiding corporates in SA”.
Such praise leads to a conclusion that a similar point of view prevails in the department of trade, industry & competition, since that is where the text of the bill officially originates, though one would not be surprised if the said trade union federation was not looking over the shoulder of the draftee.
The new law, if passed, will ensure corporates are “law-abiding”. That is an easy assumption that every corporation is run by crooks. One can understand such prejudice among some labour leaders who have swallowed the Marxist Kool-Aid, but surely it is foreign to a government department dependent on private sector taxpayers?
On the other hand, we have a government department that harbours anti-private sector sentiments, despite appeals for investment made on public platforms. Common sense says there should be a joint approach to building the economy, growing it to provide more jobs that create wealth and not jobs that rely on the taxes of others. There should not be two sides in the economic arena, with trade unions on one and all private business on the other.