The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has noted with deep concern the leaked Growth and Inclusion Strategy (GAIN), drafted by the Ministers of Finance and Trade, Industry and Competition. Marketed as an ambitious “big bang” plan to turbocharge growth to 3.5% and revive job creation, the document is in fact nothing new. It is the fourth wave of the same neoliberal poison first imposed through GEAR (1996), recycled through ASGISA (2006) and the National Development Plan (2012). Like the others, organised labour has not been consulted, and GAIN entails a strategy that SAFTU and our members have long rejected.
For 30 years, these programmes have promised growth, jobs, and redistribution — and for 30 years, they have delivered austerity, privatisation, job losses, collapsing state capacity, deindustrialisation, and worsening inequality.
From GEAR to GAIN: 30 Years of Neoliberal Continuity
| Policy | Period & Branding | Main Promises | Core Features | Continuity / Reality |
| GEAR (1996) | Growth, Employment & Redistribution | 6% growth, 400k jobs/year, redistribution via growth | Fiscal austerity, privatisation, liberalisation, removal of exchange controls | Deindustrialisation, mass job losses, inequality, weakened state |
| ASGISA (2006) | Accelerated & Shared Growth Initiative | Halve poverty & unemployment by 2014 | Infrastructure focus, skills, BBBEE, fiscal restraint intact | Failed targets, elite enrichment, “trickle down” promises collapsed |
| NDP (2012) | National Development Plan 2030 | Eradicate poverty & reduce inequality by 2030 | Export-led growth, labour market “flexibility,” PPPs, fiscal consolidation | Widening inequality, unemployment deepened, austerity entrenched |
| GAIN (2025) | Growth & Inclusion Strategy | “Big bang” reforms, 3.5% growth, revive jobs | Eskom unbundling, private investment in water/rail/ports, deregulation of SMEs & labour, public risk guarantee for banks | GEAR 4: Neoliberalism deepened, redistribution sidelined, investors appeased |
What GAIN proposes
According to the leaked draft, GAIN seeks to:
- Complete Eskom’s restructuring and introduce a competitive wholesale electricity market.
- Enable private investment in electricity transmission, freight rail, port terminals, and water infrastructure.
- Shift metros to a utility model for electricity and water delivery.
- Deregulate the informal sector, relax zoning laws, and digitise trading via fintech.
- Establish a first-loss capital guarantee fund, where public money carries the risk for SME lending while banks reap profits.
- Remove “regulatory barriers” to employment — code for weakening labour protections and collective bargaining.
- Create a technocratic Head of Public Service, insulating senior appointments from democratic accountability.
Why GAIN will fail — like its predecessors
- Privatisation by stealth: Eskom, Transnet, ports, and water are to be handed over to private markets. This will raise costs, reduce accountability, and entrench inequality.
- Public pays, private profits: The “first-loss guarantee” socialises risk while privatising gains for banks and investors.
- Labour market deregulation: “Ease of hiring” means casualisation, wage suppression, and erosion of union power.
- Technocratic hollowing out of the state: A “Head of Public Service” imported from World Bank prescriptions further removes accountability.
- Trickle-down myth: GEAR promised redistribution through growth; ASGISA promised shared prosperity; the NDP promised Vision 2030. All failed. GAIN is no different.
The real crises ignored by GAIN
- Unemployment: Over 12.3 million people jobless, with youth unemployment above 70%.
- Deindustrialisation: Thousands of factories shuttered; industrial capacity lies idle. Instead of investing in production, corporates are hoarding R1.7 trillion in cash reserves.
- Inequality and land hunger: South Africa remains the most unequal society on earth (Gini 0.67). The land question is unresolved; millions live in shacks or rural poverty while elites monopolise wealth.
- Looting and corruption: The public and private sectors bleed billions through theft and collusion. Scandals like Tembisa Hospital show how procurement budgets are stolen while clinics and hospitals collapse.
- Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs): South Africa loses over R355 billion every year through transfer pricing, profit shifting, and tax dodging — facilitated by the removal of exchange controls (especially the permission the Treasury and Resere Bank gave during the GEAR era, for Anglo American, DeBeers, Old Mutual, SA Breweries, Investec and others, to remove to London vast sums of capital representing apartheid profit). This is money that could have been tapped build schools, hospitals, and infrastructure.
SAFTU’s Alternative: Section 77 Demands
Unlike GAIN, SAFTU’s programme addresses the root causes of our crises. Through our Section 77 notice at NEDLAC and numerous statements, we demand:
1. Redistribution & Ownership
- Nationalise mineral wealth in line with the Freedom Charter.
- Drive beneficiation and reindustrialisation to create millions of jobs in steel, energy, auto, textiles, and agro-processing.
- Expropriate land without compensation for agrarian reform, food sovereignty, and rural development.
2. Jobs & Services
- Launch a massive public works programme to build houses, schools, clinics, roads, and renewable energy infrastructure.
- Fill all vacant posts in health, education, and policing immediately.
- Absorb all Community Health Workers and Community Caregivers into the public service.
3. Finance & Tax Justice
- Introduce a wealth tax on the richest 1% and raise corporate taxes.
- Reinstate exchange controls to stop capital flight and IFFs.
- Use the GEPF/PIC for productive, job-creating investments instead of speculation.
4. Industrial & Agrarian Policy
- Protect local manufacturing from dumping.
- Reopen idle factories under worker and community control.
- Invest in rural infrastructure, land reform, and food production to end hunger.
5. Public Ownership & Just Transition
- Stop Eskom unbundling; build a publicly owned renewable energy transition.
- Keep Transnet and ports under democratic ownership to serve national industrial strategy.
- Invest in climate-resilient infrastructure and green jobs led by the public sector.
6. Living Wage & Social Protection
- Raise the minimum wage to a living wage.
- Introduce a Universal Basic Income Grant above the poverty line.
7. End Corruption
- Overhaul procurement to end looting in health, education, and municipalities.
- Pursue corporate corruption with the same vigour as public sector theft.
SAFTU’s Conclusion
The leaked GAIN strategy is nothing but GEAR 4 — neoliberalism reheated and served again under a new name. For 30 years these policies have failed the working class. They have destroyed jobs, deepened inequality, collapsed public services, and looted both the public purse and natural wealth of our country.
Any strategy not based on redistributing wealth, nationalising minerals, resolving the land question, ending illicit financial flows, reindustrialising our economy, and tackling massive inequality will fail.
SAFTU demands an economy based on people before profits: mass job creation, redistribution, public ownership, and social justice. We call on workers, unemployed youth, shack dwellers, and poor communities to unite against austerity and privatisation — and to fight for the socialist transformation of our society.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media enquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
0661682157
