The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has reiterated its stance against South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU), stating that it will “hasten doomsday” for the working class and marginalised poor black majority.
“All signs of the first hundred days of this government, which was wrongly called the Government of National Unity, vindicate the SAFTU position,” the federation said in a statement released on Saturday.
The GNU, led by the African National Congress (ANC) and also incorporating the Democratic Alliance (DA), promises to inaugurate an era of clean governance, balanced government finances and economic growth.
Local and international financial markets have rallied behind the GNU, with the rand, for instance, having strengthened from R19 to the US Dollar in early June to nearly R17 in late September. Meanwhile the Johannesburg Stock Exchange has consistently soared to new records.
However SADTU says on the ground, the reality of worsening unemployment, partly due to cut-price “dumped” imports, as well as poverty, inequality and environmental degradation cannot be denied.
“The GNU has not announced an anti-poverty strategy or commitment to redistributing wealth (from the rich to the poor). However, the GNU’s monetary and fiscal policies - overseen by the International Monetary Fund thanks to conditions on the unnecessary 2020 loan of $4.3 billion will continue redistributing wealth from the poor to the rich,” SAFTU said.
“With the GNU shamelessly bent on austerity, the goal of access to equitable and inclusive access to quality education needs to be revised. The Department of Basic Education faces budget cuts of up to R118 billion rands in the coming three years. These cruel cuts have resulted in declining budget allocations to the provinces.”
In the most well-known case, the Western Cape provincial government is set to cut the jobs of 2,400 teachers, however a far worse scenario is unfolding in KwaZulu-Natal, where a budget shortfall of R4 billion is currently threatening over 11,000 teaching posts. Mpumalanga and the North West also have significant shortfalls.
Furthermore, budget cuts have also led to a shortage of healthcare professionals across the country, SAFTU said.
Unemployment in South Africa, according to the 2nd Quarterly Labour Force Survey of 2024, currently stands at 13.1 million.
There has also been a rise in precarious jobs that offer no work security as well as inadequate pay and no benefits, SAFTU said, while manufacturing jobs that are more secure and better paying continue to be culled. Employment in the manufacturing sector has reportedly declined by about 40% since 1990.
“The phenomenon of the working poor is driving inequalities, making our country the most unequal society in the world; Johannesburg is the most unequal city on earth, and Cape Town is the fifth most unequal,” SAFTU said.
Over 30 million South Africans live in poverty, the federation added, as defined by the upper-bound poverty line of R992, while about 20 million are currently food insecure.
“It is not fair to blame the terrible balance sheet on the last 100 days - because the real economy’s degeneration mainly reflects 30 years of neoliberal, neocolonial economic programmes adopted by the ANC. However, since all these GNU parties agree with the tenets of the ANC economic programme, it will be fair to assume that this disastrous pro-rich and anti-poor trajectory will continue,” SAFTU added.
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