As Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to deliver the State of the Nation Address, SAFTU sets out clearly the expectations of workers, the unemployed and poor communities.
This is not a ceremonial moment. It is a moment of accountability. Workers expect answers to one central crisis; Why, in a country as rich as South Africa, are there no jobs, collapsing services and endless austerity? The struggle in South Africa today is fundamentally about jobs and austerity.
The global and domestic conjuncture.
SAFTU expects the President to recognise that South Africa faces deep instability in both the global and domestic political economy. Trade wars, tariffs, sanctions and financial coercion increasingly threaten developing economies. Trade and finance are now used as weapons. Recent unilateral tariffs threaten thousands of jobs in agriculture, metals, automotive production and agro-processing. While the temporary extension of AGOA is welcomed, it cannot substitute for rebuilding domestic production.
South Africa enters this moment already weakened by years of deindustrialisation, privatisation and fiscal cuts. Working communities face:
• mass unemployment.
• collapsing municipalities.
• deteriorating infrastructure.
• unaffordable services.
• hunger.
• crime.
• declining public services.
These are not accidents. They are the result of policy choices. SONA must mark a decisive break with these policies.
The jobs emergency and deindustrialization.
Each year more than 1.2 million young people enter the labour market. The economy fails to create employment anywhere near this scale. Stable work has been replaced by casualization, outsourcing and labour broking. Manufacturing’s contribution to GDP has halved. Steel, tyres, food processing, beverages and light manufacturing have closed.
Corporations shut factories while retaining distribution networks to import finished goods.
South Africa is being reduced to a warehouse and consumer economy instead of a producing economy.
Once productive capacity leaves, it does not return. Skills are lost. Communities collapse. Local economies decay. SONA must commit to reindustrialization, localization and job-rich public investment. Austerity and the collapse of public services so-called fiscal consolidation have meant real cuts in education, health, policing and social development. This means:
• fewer teachers.
• fewer nurses.
• fewer police.
• closed schools.
• deteriorating hospitals.
• rising crime.
Austerity destroys both jobs and services.
A country with mass unemployment cannot cut its way to growth. SONA must end austerity and fill all public sector vacancies. Mining, abandoned mines and community terror.
SAFTU expects the President to confront the crisis in the mining sector, one of the foundations of South Africa’s economy. According to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, approximately 6,000 abandoned and unsealed mines remain across the country. Mining companies extracted wealth and left without rehabilitation. Government failed to enforce environmental and regulatory obligations.
These abandoned sites are now controlled by criminal syndicates. Workers are recruited into extremely dangerous illegal mining. Communities face violence, extortion and displacement. Illegal mineral exports flourish. This is not simply criminality. It is the direct consequence of regulatory failure and state absence.
SONA must commit to:
• sealing abandoned mines.
• prosecuting companies that failed to rehabilitate.
• seizing rehabilitation guarantees.
• protecting affected communities.
Mining cannot be allowed to operate as extraction today and abandonment tomorrow. Poverty, hunger and income insecurity. Millions survive on insufficient wages and grants. According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, the Basic Nutritional Food Basket for a household costs R6,502.10 per month. The minimum wage provides about R5,894.85 per month. Full-time work does not even cover a household’s basic nutrition much less all the other expenses.
The Child Support Grant and SRD are far below the cost of feeding a child.
Research compiled with the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit shows rising food insecurity and entrenched deprivation. SONA must introduce a universal Basic Income Grant of at least R1,500. Illicit trade, warehousing and hollowed-out enforcement
Corporations close factories while keeping import and distribution networks.
This pattern is visible with:
• British American Tobacco South Africa.
• Goodyear South Africa.
• Bridgestone South Africa.
Production disappears. Jobs disappear. Warehousing remains.
At the same time illicit cigarettes account for up to 75% of the market, costing billions in lost tax revenue. Government is also failing to enforce food safety regulations. Children continue to die from unsafe food, including tragic incidents this weekend in East London. A state that cannot enforce basic laws cannot protect workers or revenue. SONA must rebuild enforcement capacity urgently.
Resources exist, austerity is political
Billions are lost through:
• illicit financial flows.
• tax evasion.
• transfer pricing.
• corruption.
• luxury consumption.
• corporate concessions.
Resources can be mobilized through progressive taxation and enforcement.
There is money. Austerity is a political choice.
A programme for recovery
SAFTU expects SONA to adopt a programme first and foremost to overall the south African away from extractivism and creating jobs out of the country into localization and meeting the basic needs of the majority of South Africans. Such a programme should include:
• expansionary public investment.
• mass public works employment.
• reindustrialization.
• insourcing.
• filling vacancies.
• public ownership of strategic sectors.
• affordable services.
• progressive taxation.
• healthcare.
• education.
• agrarian reform.
• land redistribution.
• a Basic Income Grant at R1500.
If these expectations are ignored, SAFTU will intensify mass mobilization. The choice is clear, Jobs or austerity.
Production or warehousing.
Public services or privatization.
Workers expect action.
People Before Profits.
Jobs Before Austerity.
Rebuild the Economy for the Majority.
Issued on behalf of the SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku
Newtonm@saftu.org.za
066 168 2157
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
