The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) marks the one-year anniversary of the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) with a sober warning: the country is collapsing under the weight of austerity, corruption, privatisation, and elite rule.
What was promised as a “new dawn” has instead delivered historic unemployment, a collapsed public service, a betrayed education system, worsening urban decay, and a complete abandonment of any developmental state agenda
This GNU is not a unity of the people. It is a unity of elites—between the ANC, DA, and other capitalist-aligned parties—designed to protect profits and deflect working-class resistance.
1. Economic Violence Through Austerity and Unemployment
- 12.7 million unemployed, 80% of them for more than a year
- R1.7 trillion hoarded by corporations, while investment, job creation, and wages stagnate
- Per capita spending on basic services has shrunk by 18.3% since 2020
- The private sector is on a capital strike, while Treasury slashes public spending
There can be no unity while 80% of South Africans live in poverty or economic insecurity, while the richest 10% own 90% of the wealth.
2. The Collapse of Education – From Grade 1 to the Unemployment Line
Basic Education Crisis
- Over 23,000 education posts lost through attrition
- 29,000 vacant posts remain unfilled
- Learners in rural schools face overcrowded classes, no desks, unsafe infrastructure
- Grade R made compulsory, but Treasury refused to fund the R17 billion needed
- Nutrition programme provides less than R5 per meal, and scholar transport cuts total R483 million
This is deliberate, not accidental. It is a structural denial of the constitutional right to education.
Tertiary Education Crisis – A Broken Promise of Mobility
- In 2013, over 1 million learners started Grade 1.
- By 2024, only 578,000 wrote matric – meaning 422,000 dropped out (42%) before completion.
- Of those, 337,158 achieved Bachelor passes qualifying them for university.
- But South Africa’s 26 public universities only have capacity for 202,000 new first-year students.
- As a result, 135,000 university-qualified learners were excluded, joining the ranks of the sidelined.
This means that more than half of all young people who start school are ultimately thrown into unemployment — whether they pass matric or not.
TVET Colleges: Underfunded and Underperforming
- TVETs absorbed around 166,600 new students in 2024, but offer poor job placement, under-resourced campuses, and minimal infrastructure support.
- Learners forced out of the university system are channelled into a TVET system that reproduces working-class poverty rather than economic upliftment.
This is not education. It is a conveyor belt from childhood to unemployment — and the GNU is its engineer.
3. Auditor-General’s Findings: Local Government in Collapse
The 2025 Auditor-General report confirms what communities experience daily:
- Only 41 of 257 municipalities received clean audits
- Over R30 billion in irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure
- Municipalities are failing on water, sanitation, housing, refuse, electricity, and safety
And still, the GNU has cut local government funding — enforcing a downward spiral of dysfunction, neglect, and decay.
4. Service Delivery Crisis – A Return to Apartheid Conditions
- Water failures plague Hammanskraal, Giyani, and parts of Gauteng, with cholera outbreaks and dry taps.
- Electricity remains unaffordable, and load-shedding continues despite privatisation promises.
- Housing provision has collapsed: hijacked buildings, overcrowded informal settlements, and deadly fires in inner cities expose the death of the urban vision.
- South Africa’s towns are becoming indistinguishable from under-serviced informal settlements and rural villages.
This is what neoliberalism and austerity look like in human terms: darkness, displacement, disease, and despair.
5. Corruption in Public and Private Sectors
Corruption is systemic – in the state, municipalities, SOEs, and the corporate sector:
- Over R300 billion lost annually to illicit financial flows
- Infrastructure projects cost four times more than school-based alternatives
- The so-called Transformation Fund is nothing more than elite enrichment under a BEE label
SAFTU rejects this “trickle-up” transformation model, which redistributes public funds into private hands while excluding the working class from ownership and development.
6. Privatising the State: Socialising Risk, Privatising Profit
The GNU’s so-called “reforms” are a cover for privatisation:
- Eskom is being carved up for energy traders, while communities face price hikes
- Transnet and ports are being handed to global logistics firms
- Public services are increasingly outsourced to private contractors, consultants, and monopolies
This is a looting project: when things fail, the public pays; when things profit, the private sector takes the gains.
7. Collapse of Industrial Capacity and the Investment Strike
- Manufacturing has dropped from 24% of GDP in 1990 to 12% today
- Since 2005, 309,000 jobs lost in manufacturing alone
- Mining, clothing, and steel sectors continue to shed jobs as investment dries up
- Yet corporations hoard over R1.7 trillion in investible funds
The GNU protects this profit-hoarding, while offering no real plan for reindustrialisation, jobs, or transformation of the neocolonial economy.
8. SAFTU’s Demands: Rebuild the Nation for the Working Class
We demand:
- Reject austerity – reverse all social spending cuts
- Fund a universal basic income of R1500/month
- Tax the rich – implement wealth and solidarity taxes, clamp down on illicit flows
- Reindustrialise through public investment in local industry, SOEs, and co-operatives
- Nationalise minerals and land, and place them under democratic control
- Fix basic education – fill teacher posts, provide infrastructure, and resource schools equitably
- Expand universities and TVET colleges to match the demand and build skills
- End privatisation – restore Eskom, Transnet, and ports to public control
- Rebuild municipalities – with qualified staff, public funding, and community oversight
This GNU has failed the working class. It has surrendered to capital, to international finance, to privatisation, and to authoritarianism disguised as “stability.” It has delivered a year of devastation. The next year must be one of mobilisation.
SAFTU calls on all workers, youth, the unemployed, and rural and urban communities: Organise. Resist. Rebuild. Fight back.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU by General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For more details, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
066 168 2157
Newtonm@saftu.org.za
