Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe has condemned the "violent and corrupt" culture of South Africa’s workforce, citing that it negatively affected the country’s waning economic growth and eroded South African society.

He asserted that, when there were breakdowns in wage talks, which was a common occurrence in the country, protest action should not become violent and lead to the loss of lives and property.

“There should be no intimidation of those who choose to go to work [and] strike action should not be so protracted to make workers and their families worse off than they were before the strike action,” Radebe stated.

“When communities are unhappy about service delivery, they should not burn down the little that they have. When government makes a decision that some in the communities do not agree with, such as the determination of municipal boundaries, [they should] not prevent our children from going to school.

“Communities must not burn down public assets,” he stressed.

Speaking at the Vision 2030 Summit, at Emperor’s Palace, in Johannesburg, the Minister noted that the country’s National Development Plan (NDP) called on all South Africans to be part of a virtuous society, where “working together means understanding that each [is] playing a valuable and important role in the development of the country”.

Further, Radebe denounced illegal actions, “such as those that are delaying the completion of [the] Medupi [power station], or obstructing the education of our children”, stating that such actions were unacceptable and that perpetrators should be prosecuted.

“These actions constitute a form of breaking down and slowing the progress that we want in our country,” he said.

Radebe further criticised acts of “blatant corruption” in the public or private sectors, noting that it should be exposed, with strong action taken by authorities against those involved.

“The [showing off] of wealth by the rich in our society and the paying of high salaries to business executives [also] generates anger and resentment by those who toil every day for wages hardly enough to cover their transport costs,” he added.

However, Radebe highlighted that the NDP was building a greater future for the country.

An example of the good work that flowed from the NDP was government’s Employment Tax Incentive scheme, launched in January last year and aimed at encouraging employers to hire young work seekers. “It has begun to show positive results. By the end of 2014, a total of 270 000 young people had benefited from this scheme,” he said.

Radebe said that, through the Department of Science and Technology, government was also investing in building skills to support the economy, spending R30-billion in research development support programmes, as well as investing R2.7-billion in the National Research Foundation to support 4 559 researchers, 15 980 Masters students and 9 650 doctoral students.

He also highlighted that the National Education Collaboration Trust, an initiative between government, business, labour and civil society, was now at the implementation stage.

“This flagship project is being done to improve programmes in eight districts of Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, North West and Mpumulanga, reaching a total of 4 262 schools.

“We are indeed at work. The questioning of government’s commitment to implementing the NDP is unfounded . . . but agreements between leaders will remain hollow unless we, the people, give affect to them,” he noted.

Further, Radebe noted that the narrative that government was hostile towards the private sector was “quite curious”.

“As you know, we don’t have a State-owned construction or manufacturing company. All the work [done] and investments that are made is undertaken by private sector companies – all projects are structured and financed by local and foreign companies, [as well as] banking institutions – yet, this narrative is allowed.

“We can do so much better than this. If we work together, we can certainly achieve far greater success. It is important that even if we are unhappy with what government has done or failed to do, we should still continue to work together, understanding that we are building a future many times better than the present,” Radebe added.