The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) is outraged at the escalating jobs bloodbath devastating every sector of our economy. From steel to auto, from agriculture to the Post Office, the axe is falling relentlessly on workers and their families. These are not isolated accidents but the product of neoliberal policies, austerity, and corporate greed.
We declare that every retrenchment is intolerable, every job loss is a crisis, and every closure is an attack on our class – the working class.
SAFTU will convene an extended Campaigns Committee on 16 September 2025 as an internal mobilisation and strategising meeting. It will be addressed by other working-class formations to sharpen a collective response to this carnage. Among the issues on the agenda are not only retrenchments but also the wider crises of cancer, hunger, water, housing, and health sector corruption. Following this, SAFTU will convene a Working-Class Summit to build a unified programme of struggle.
A nationwide jobs bloodbath
- Daybreak Foods: more than 2,200 retrenchments planned — nearly 80% of its workforce — under business rescue.
- ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA): closure of long-steel operations in Newcastle and Vereeniging, with Vanderbijlpark under threat. Over 4,000 jobs directly at risk, and up to 100,000 more in mining, metal fabrication, engineering, transport and logistics. Suppliers like Assmang’s Beeshoek iron ore mine already face nearly 700 job losses after contracts were terminated. The crisis will reverberate through the entire steel value chain, crippling local manufacturers, contractors, and service providers.
- Goodyear Kariega: plant closure destroyed ~900 jobs, collapsing a once-viable industrial hub.
- Ford SA: 474 retrenchments at Silverton and Gqeberha; part of an auto industry that has already lost 4,000+ jobs across 12 company closures in two years.
- SAB / AB InBev: targeting 233 logistics and warehouse jobs, defying public-interest conditions of the 2016 merger. SAFTU and FAWU are united in rejecting this atrocity.
- Glencore (ferrochrome & vanadium): consultations threaten thousands of jobs directly and tens of thousands indirectly.
- SAPO (Post Office): over 4,000 retrenchments and closure of 350+ branches, leaving rural and township communities stranded without essential services.
- Transnet: cutting jobs by stealth through “voluntary severance” as ports and rail collapse, strangling wider economic activity.
- Denel: dangling retrenchments as part of its turnaround, without engaging workers.
- SABC: restructuring threatens more public-sector jobs.
This crisis is unfolding even before the full shock of U.S. tariffs hits, with the Reserve Bank warning of 100,000 additional job losses in autos and agriculture.
The real picture of deindustrialisation
South Africa is suffering a historic collapse of its productive base:
- Manufacturing employment has fallen from 1.4 million in 2005 to 1.09 million in 2021 — a loss of 309,000 jobs in just over a decade and a half.
- In 2025 alone, 23,000 jobs were lost in manufacturing, with output down 3.4% year-on-year.
- Mining employment has shrunk by 442,000 jobs since the late 1980s — an average of 12,000 jobs lost per year— devastating mining towns and labour-sending areas.
- Formal non-agricultural employment declined by 95,000 jobs year-on-year to March 2025.
This is not “market adjustment” — it is the collapse of national industrial capacity engineered by neoliberal policies that prioritise profit and privatisation over people.
SAFTU’s fighting response
The Extended Campaigns Committee on 16 September will sharpen SAFTU’s collective strategy. Among the pillars:
- Defensive action:
- A moratorium on retrenchments in companies and SOEs.
- Full enforcement of merger/public-interest conditions at SAB/AB InBev and others approved by the Competition Commission.
- Halt to mass layoffs at Daybreak Foods, Goodyear, AMSA, and Glencore.
- Relief for affected workers:
- Emergency income support, retraining, and debt protection.
- No evictions or repossessions linked to retrenchments.
- Structural transformation:
- Fill all vacant posts in public services.
- Launch public-led industrialisation in steel, energy, rail, ports, and healthcare.
- Nationalise strategic industries under democratic worker control.
- Adopt assertive trade defence against tariff shocks.
Towards a Working-Class Summit
The Extended Campaigns Committee is only the beginning. SAFTU will convene a Working-Class Summit to build a broad front of trade unions, community organisations, student movements, and unemployed people’s formations. Only the united power of the working class can turn back this onslaught and put forward a programme for jobs, dignity, and justice.
Every retrenchment is a crisis. Every job lost is a call to action. We will not pay for this crisis- we will fight back.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media enquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
0661682157
