Lesotho gained the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community Employment and Labour Sector (SADC ELS) from Zambia.

This was announced at the end of a five day SADC ELS meeting held at 'Manthabiseng Convention Centre last week Friday.

Handing the chairmanship to Lesotho, the Zambian Minister of Labour and Social Security, Mr. Ronald Mukuma said Lesotho is faced with a lot of challenges in this chairmanship.

Mr. Mukuma appealed to Lesotho to sustain the momentum by following-up the approval of the 2008/2009 SADC Employment and Labour Programmes, which have been facilitated by Zambia.

He indicated that Zambia has accomplished a number of items for the past 12 months of its chairmanship such as the approval of SADC CODE on Social Security. He added that employment related issues have an impact on incomes and the quality standards of people.

Mr. Mukuma therefore urged the Member States to consider the possible development of a comprehensive labour migration framework to facilitate sustainable economic development. This should include development and adoption of a regional labour migration protocol.

In addition, he said SADC ELS needs to come up with a common stand on issues of importance to the continent at the International Labour Organisation, when preparing for the African Union meeting, scheduled later this month.

In his remarks, Lesotho's Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr. Refiloe Masemene said Lesotho is prepared to continue from where Zambia left.

He therefore called on regional support from Member States for facilitation of productivity and improvement of labour and employment within the region.

The SADC ELS meeting started on Monday last week and ended on Friday. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss issues of labour and employment in Southern Africa.

Source: LENA 04/04/2008