Pretoria - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has, in his capacity as Chairperson of the Committee of Principals of the National Economic Development Council (Nedlac), appointed a seven-person panel to advise on an appropriate level at which the national minimum wage could be set.
 
The Nedlac Committee of Principals comprises representatives of Government, Labour, Business and Community charged with, among others, determining the national minimum wage.
 
In his State of the Nation Address on 17 June 2014, President Jacob Zuma called on Nedlac social partners under the leadership of Deputy President Ramaphosa to address low wages, wage inequalities and national minimum wage, violent and protracted strikes.
 
Deputy President Ramaphosa has now in consultation with Nedlac social partners appointed the following persons to a Panel of Advisors to assist Nedlac in setting the level of the national minimum wage, taking into account work done thus far by Nedlac technical task-teams:
 
1. Prof Imraan Valodia (Chairperson): part-time member of the Competition Tribunal and a Commissioner on the Employment Conditions Commission
2. Ms. Mamokete Lijane, Aluwani Capital Partnersmacro strategist responsible for macro-economic and fixed income strategy and asset allocation
3. Dr. Debbie Collier, associate professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Cape Town
4. Prof. Murray Leibbrandt, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Poverty and Inequality, University of Cape Town
5. Mr. Ayabonga Cawe, Economic Justice Manager, OXFAM South Africa
6. Dr. Siphokazi Koyana, Skills Development and Training Expert with local and international experience
7. Dr. Patrick Belser (international expert), senior economist at the International Labour Organisation.
 
The appointment of the advisors takes place against the background of consensus among Nedlac social partners to introduce a national minimum wage as part of efforts to restore the dignity of the majority of South Africans, address the triple challenges of poverty, under-development and inequality, and reduce pay differentials while maximising job creation.
 
Deputy President Ramaphosa has extended his gratitude to the panel members for availing themselves to perform this important national task and wished them well in this endeavour.

 
SEE COMPREHENSIVE BIOGRAPHIES BELOW:
 
1. PROFESSOR IMRAAN VALODIA
 
Professor Valodia has a doctorate in Economics from UKZN. His research interests include employment, the informal economy, gender, and industrialisation. He is currently coordinating an international study, in 10 cities, of the informal economy. His most recent book reports on the methodology and research findings of a three-year research project, conducted in eight countries, on the gender impacts of taxation. He has published in leading international journals and is one of only a handful of South African economists with an NRF B-rating. He serves on a number of economic policy forums and has worked with leading international development organisations, including the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, the United Nations Development Programme, UN Women, the World Bank, and Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising, among others. Professor Valodia is a part-time member of the Competition Tribunal and a Commissioner on the Employment Conditions Commission.
 
2. MS MAMOKETE LIJANE: B.Bus.Sc (Actuarial), CFA
 
Ms Mamokete Lijane is the Macro Strategist for the Aluwani Capital Partners, responsible for macroeconomic and fixed income strategy, and asset allocation. She has 15 years’ experience as an analyst in South Africa financial markets. Prior to joining Aluwani, Mamokete was the fixed income analyst at Sasfin Securities, ABSA/Barclays Capital and Renaissance Capital. She was consistently rated in the top three in the Financial Mail and Spire awards for fixed income research in the past five years to 2015, including winning the Financial Mail best Fixed Income analyst award in 2010. She has experience in Sub-Sahara Africa local currency and fixed income research, credit research and macroeconomic analysis. Her work has involved publication of reports for domestic and international institutional investors covering macroeconomic developments insofar as they affect financial markets.
 
3. DR DEBBIE COLLIER
 
Dr Debbie Collier is Associate Professor in the Department of Commercial Law, the Faculty of Law, at the University of Cape Town and is an associate of the Institute of Development and Labour Law. Debbie has been teaching at UCT for fifteen years and her responsibilities in this regard have covered various aspects of business law, including labour law and law and development in the context of inequality and anti-discrimination law. Debbie is involved in a number of employment law research and law reform projects and has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on employment law and anti-discrimination law and in particular on income inequality and the design of related wage policy. Debbie’s research is frequently concerned with regulation and governance issues more broadly and the problem of translating policy into law. Debbie’s publications include the co-authored book ‘Executive Salaries in South Africa: Who should have a Say on Pay?’ published in 2014. Debbie’s research is located within the Institute of Development and Labour Law and the Labour and Enterprise Policy Research Group at the University of Cape Town and currently includes a project on income inequality, pay policies, corporate governance, labour law and the role of law as a mechanism to address income differentials.
 
4. PROFFESSOR MURRAY LEIBBRANDT
 
Prof Murray Leibbrandt is the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Poverty and Inequality, at the University of Cape Town, a Professor in the School of Economics and the Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit. His research analyses South African poverty, inequality and labour market dynamics using survey data and, in particular, panel data. He is one of the Principal Investigators on the National Income Dynamics Study. He holds the DST/NRF National Research Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research and Chairs the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF) Standing Committee on Science for the Reduction of Poverty and Inequality.
 
5. MR. AYABONGA CAWE
 
Ayabonga is currently Economic Justice Manager at Oxfam South Africa (OZA). Prior to this role he worked as an Associate Consultant at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a global development strategy consulting and policy advisory firm. He has experience in economic research, policy and supply chain analysis, advocacy, development program design and M&E. He is also a co-founder of Rethink Africa NPC, a youth-led policy research, advocacy and advisory organisation. He has published a range of policy related commentary pieces, and is often called upon, in different media platforms, to comment on socio-economic developments in South Africa.
 
He has taken part in a wide range of research engagements on development issues in agriculture, rail, urban design and labour market policy. His international experience includes conducting primary research with farmer organizations in Indonesia, for a multilateral client. He has also conducted primary research in Nigeria, for a market entry strategy on behalf of a global pharmaceuticals manufacturer. He holds an M.Com (Cum Laude) in Development Theory and Policy from Wits. 
 
6. DR. SIPHOKAZI KOYANA (PH.D.)
 
Dr Koyana holds degrees from Smith College, Yale, and Temple Universities in the USA.  She has worked as a lecturer and published researcher at the Universities of the Witwatersrand, Pretoria, and Rhodes. Koyana was a Programme Manager at the National Research Foundation, a grant making government agency, where she implemented a research skills capacity building programme for young (under 45 years) women and black lecturers and post graduate students in all of South Africa’s tertiary institutions. This programme, called the Thuthuka Programme, had more than 450 participants. Her expertise in the Skills Development and Training arena grew out of her experiences as an instructor in numerous and diverse programmes in the USA and locally. She serves on the Boards of Phembani Group and SASOL Inzalo Public Funding, Ltd. She has also served on the Boards of Shanduka Group and the Transnet Foundation.
 
7. DR PATRICK BELSER
 
Dr Patrick Belser (international expert) is Senior Economist at the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva, where he leads the group that conducts research on global wage trends and that advises Member states, upon request, on minimum wage fixing. He has published several articles on minimum wages and has been a main author of the ILO Global Wage Report, a flagship report published every two years since 2008, as well as of the ILO policy guide on minimum wages (www.ilo.org/minimumwage). He has a D.Phil. in Economics from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex and is a Swiss national.

Issued by Ronnie Mamoepa – 082 990 4853
 
The Presidency
Pretoria