Minimum wage just foundation: Ramaphosa
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa says the introduction of the new national minimum wage will be implemented by no later than 1 May 2018.
Ramaphosa announced that an agreement was signed by labour, business and government on a R20 per hour minimum wage.
Ramaphosa says this is only a starting point.
"What we arrived at is not a living wage, but this is a firm foundation of moving our country towards a living wage," says Ramaphosa.
According to Ramaphosa, this works out to about R3500 a month.
Trade union federation Cosatu has not signed the agreement yet, because they first want to report back to their members.
"We have agreed that we are going to give Cosatu the time and the opportunity to go and report back to their own structures and it has all been done on a consensual basis with proper discussion. There is no fracture, there is no breakdown between the process and Cosatu," says Ramaphosa.