(Budget vote debate in Parliament: Employment and Labour)
The Minister of Labour, Thulas Nxesi, tries very hard to paint a pretty picture of achievements, plans and programmes that will improve the lives of workers in South Africa.
The irony is that the Department and ruling party are trying to create the impression that they are good socialists who always act in the best interests of the workers and will protect them against so-called exploitation by capitalism. But in truth, they are the ones failing the country's workers.
When the ANC fails to pay its own employees, the Department and its labour inspectors are nowhere to be seen.
When ANC-controlled municipalities fail to pay over third-party deductions from employees, the Department is missing in action.
At present, 62 employees of the Mafube Local Municipality in the Free State, who are entitled to retire, are not able to retire seeing as their pension deductions were never paid over to the pension fund.
This Municipality owes the pension fund R173 million, but the Minister does not say a word about it.
But if there is as much as an allegation that a large business enterprise or a farmer may have violated labour legislation, then the Department does not wait to make its voice heard.
The Department's mandate is not only to protect employees, but also to stimulate job creation. The current unemployment rate of 35,5% tells the tale of its utter failure.
The Department is supposed to strike a balance between protecting employees' rights and creating a favourable environment enabling the private sector to create more jobs.
This cannot happen as long as the Department is hostile towards the private sector, and the government makes it harder and harder to do business, invest and expand.
Some workers have been waiting for years for their Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) or Compensation Fund benefits to pay out due to the Department and its entities' sheer incompetence.
UIF funds are stolen through underhand investments by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), but no-one is ever held accountable.
Part of the problem is the ANC members of the Portfolio Committee on Labour who confuse their role of providing oversight with that of spin doctor for the Department.
They simply cannot accept any constructive criticism against the Department and its entities. Sensible contributions from the opposition are disregarded as attempts to further political agendas.
This adds to the Department's poor performance as no-one holds it accountable.
South Africa's workers deserve better than this incompetent ANC government.
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