The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) rejects attempts by Cyril Ramaphosa and Enoch Godongwana to present a weak 0.5% GDP rise as economic progress. For working people, this is not growth; it is stagnation in a system that continues to reproduce poverty, unemployment, and extreme inequality.
Government applause is detached from reality. Families face hunger, unaffordable electricity, collapsing services, and record unemployment while elites debate decimals in air-conditioned conference rooms. A technical “increase” does not restore dignity, create jobs, or put food on the table.
THIS IS NOT GROWTH, IT IS EXTRACTION
The so-called “contributors” to growth, finance, mining, and trade confirm what is wrong with the economy:
- Finance grows while jobs disappear
- Mining expands with little beneficiation and brutal labour conditions.
- Trade depends on imports and consumer debt rather than rebuilding industry
Even the 0.7% rise in household spending reflects working people borrowing just to survive, not rising wages or improved living standards.
A STOLEN ECONOMY CANNOT GROW
South Africa does not only suffer from bad policy. It suffers from systemic looting by political and corporate elites.
Billions are stolen every year through:
- Procurement corruption and tender fraud
- Private-sector cartels and price-fixing
- Tax avoidance and profit sharing by corporates
- Illicit financial flows, transfer mispricing, and base erosion
- Inflated infrastructure contracts and SOE corruption
The government pleads poverty while the private sector steals budgets, dodges taxes, and externalises wealth. This is a class war by accounting.
The working class pays twice:
Once through unemployment and collapsing services, and again through VAT, fuel levies, and electricity hikes.
AUSTERITY+ CORRUPTION = ECONOMIC SABOTAGE
Austerity cuts clinics, schools, and municipal services, while corruption robs the state of revenue and capacity. This is not mismanagement. It is economic betrayal.
South Africa is not poor. It is plundered.
THE FREEDOM CHARTER WARNED US
The Freedom Charter anticipated this injustice
“The national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people .”
“The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and the monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.”
“The land shall be shared among those who work it.”
Today, South Africa has elections without economic freedom, a democracy without justice.
SAFTU DEMANDS
1. End austerity and rebuild the developmental state
2. Jail corrupt politicians and executives, without fear or deals.
3. Aggressively recover stolen public money from corrupt firms and individuals.
4. Close tax loopholes and end profit shifting and transfer mispricing.
5. Institute a wealth tax on the super-rich.
6. Nationalise strategic sectors in line with the Freedom Charter.
7. Launch a real industrial recovery plan rooted in localisation and public ownership.
8. Protect and expand jobs, especially in health, education, and infrastructure.
A country cannot grow while it is being robbed.
People cannot prosper in a stolen economy
SAFTU will not join celebrations in a burning house.
We will organise. We will expose. We will resist.
South Africa does not need statistics; it needs justice.
A statement was issued on behalf of the SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
newtonm@saftu.org.za
0785164094
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
