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• Skills Development Act (SDA)

  Plays a significant role in ensuring that the South African workforce is skilled and contributes to the productivity and economic growth of the country
• Purpose of the SDA

  • Develops the skills of South Africans to improve productivity in the workplace
  • Encourages businesses to improve the skills of new and existing workers
  • Invests in the education and training of the South African workforce
  • Purposefully redresses imbalances of the past through education and training
  • Improves the job prospects of previously disadvantaged people
  • Provides the systematic implementation of strategies on a national, sector and workplace basis
• Implementation of the SDA

  Time-consuming, expensive, prescriptive and administratively burdensome
• Skills Development Levy (SDL)

  Places an additional burden on financially struggling businesses
• SDA initiative of the government


  May not always be supported by all businesses
• Businesses monitoring/controlling the implementation of the SDA

  Find it difficult
• Productivity in the workplace

  May decline as employees have to attend learnerships during work hours
• Companies/businesses with a staff payroll over R500 000 per annum


  Can claim the SDL
• The SDA aims to enable more South Africans to gain access to skills training opportunities that have long-term benefits for the population and society
• Only companies/businesses with a staff payroll over R500 000 per annum can claim the SDL
• Businesses that do not comply with the SDA may receive a compliance order from the Labour Court
• Businesses who neglect to comply with the SDA may receive large fines and may be given a jail sentence
• A labour inspector may indefinitely stop the operations of the business if the business is found guilty of illegal practices
• The business's operating licence may be revoked, which may prevent the business from continuing any form of operations
• Compliance


  Ways/methods in which businesses can act in accordance with the SDA
• Employers whose payroll exceeds R500 000 (half a million rand) per annum should pay 1% of it over to SETA
• Employers should submit a workplace skills plan and provide evidence that it was implemented
• Compliance order


  A document issued by a court of law to a business that forces the business to comply with a specific aspect of a legislation/ruling
• Revoked the business licence

  Can be officially cancelled or repealed by the Labour Court
• Non-compliance


  Actions that are unjust, unfair, illegal and show prejudice towards employees in the context of violating the Act
• Penalties/consequences for non-compliance


  Legal charges businesses may face for not complying with the particular Act/legislation
• SETAs


  • Vocational skills training organisations in South Africa that identify/outline/manage and create learnerships, internships, and apprenticeships in the various business sectors
• Role/functions of SETAs


  1. Register various learnerships and learning programmes

  2. Promote and establish various learnerships

  3. Approve the workplace skills plans and annual training reports submitted by businesses

  4. Develop skills plans that are in line with the aims of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS)

  5. Develop/build skills development plans for the various economic sectors

  6. Promote learnerships and learning programmes by correctly identifying the best workplaces for practical work experience
• Funding of SETAs


  • Skills Development levies paid by employers to SARS
  • Donations/Grants received from the public/businesses/CSI programmes
  • Surplus funds from government institutions
  • Funds received from rendering their services
• Learnerships


  Theoretical/practical training opportunities that lead to a recognised occupational qualification
• Learnerships


  1. Provide structured learning programmes that are completed during work hours for a specified period

  2. Include a training course with learning material as well as practical work experience

  3. Agreement between a learner/trainee, employer and a training provider

  4. May sometimes include employment for a specified period after the learnership is completed
• The National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) aims to develop skills, improve education, support and provide training to the South African workforce, improve economic growth and in the process, alleviate poverty and reduce unemployment
• The Human Resource Development Strategy (HRDS) aims to address equity and to reduce poverty and inequality in South Africa by addressing skills deficits in the economy and implementing intervention plans to develop human resources to improve the South African economy
• Explanation of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS)

  1. Increases access to programmes that train people

  2. Addresses the low level/deficit/shortage of language and mathematical skills among the youth and adults

  3. Promotes the public FET college system that has programmes to meet the skills needed by SETAs/local/regional/provincial/national organisations

  4. Makes better use of/enhances/improves workplace-based skills development

  5. Encourages/supports small business/community-training groups/NGOs/worker-initiated training initiatives

  6. Increases/improves the skills of the public sector to improve service delivery

  7. Builds career/vocational guidance/training centres

  8. Sets out/outlines the responsibilities of other education and training stakeholders

  9. Improves social development through economic development
• Explanation of the Human Resources Development Strategy (HRDS)


  1. Improves the supply of skills, which benefits the country directly

  2. Promotes social development/social justice and helps to reduce poverty

  3. Addresses skills shortages in the South African workplace

  4. Achieves faster economic growth/higher employment levels and reduces the poverty level in South Africa

  5. Develops both short-term and long-term workforce skills

  6. Increases/encourages employee participation in lifelong learning
• Non-compliance with the Employment Equity Act (EEA)

  • Denying people access to the workplace based on discrimination
  • Treating workers unfairly and incorrectly promoting affirmative action
  • Refusing to employ young women due to potential pregnancy
  • Conducting HIV testing without Labour Court justification
  • Refusing to employ due to religious, cultural or disability reasons
  • Harassing and victimising employees
• Businesses that do not comply with the EEA may receive a compliance order from the Labour Court that forces the business to comply
• Businesses who neglect to comply with the EEA may receive large fines, which will be dependent on the degree of non-compliance, especially in the context of fronting
• The Department of Labour may prevent non-compliant businesses from conducting business with the government, especially in the context of government tenders
• Labour inspectors can visit the business and conduct interviews with employees to determine whether the information supplied on the employment equity plans is true or has been falsified
• Ways in which businesses can comply with the EEA


  1. Display a summary of the EEA in the workplace

  2. Provide equal opportunities to all employees

  3. Ensure employees are paid equally for work of equal value

  4. Implement affirmative action measures to promote diversity

  5. Compile employment equity plans

  6. Ensure the workplace is representative of the country's demographics

  7. Restructure employment policies/practices/procedures to accommodate designated groups
• Currently in South Africa, there is no legislation which mandates compulsory immunisation of the South African population against Covid-19
• Should the government decide to promulgate/establish legislation for compulsory immunisation, it should be done in conjunction with employment legislation such as the LRA, EEA, BCEA and OHSA
• It is therefore, not considered non-compliance by businesses if employees do not want to receive Covid-19 vaccinations
• However, employers may introduce mandatory vaccine policies in the workplace and rejection of mandatory vaccinations by employees may constitute grounds for dismissal