South Africa’s economy is no longer in free fall. The national debt is expected to stabilise at 77.9% after nearly 20 years of accumulation, with the reduction in the inflation target being good news for investors and struggling households.
ECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS IMPROVING BUT MINIMAL GROWTH REMAINS MAJOR CONCERN Read More »
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana is expected to highlight several reasons to feel encouraged that South Africa’s stunted economy is on the cusp of a growth phase when he delivers the 2025 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement tomorrow.
ECONOMY SHOWS MODEST SIGNS OF LIFE; POVERTY AND HUNGER TO STAY Read More »
Theoretically and Constitutionally equal, but practically prejudiced and marginalised. That’s the picture of women, particularly women of colour, that emerges from South Africa’s latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey – as it has for the past 30 years.
The second quarter stats for 2025 were released yesterday, in Women’s Month. This year’s Women’s Month theme is: Building Resilient Economies for All. While there’s nothing wrong with an aspirational theme, those groups of people regarded as second class under apartheid – including women – are rightly getting tired of waiting for material improvements to their daily lived experiences.
WOMEN’S MONTH: QUARTERLY LABOUR STATS ROOT WOMEN OF COLOUR TO THE BOTTOM RUNG Read More »
The GOOD Party is deeply concerned by the National Treasury’s imposition of punitive and exclusionary conditions on the 2025/26 operating budget of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). These conditions effectively extend the flawed administrative procedures of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to long-standing grants such as the Child Support Grant, Disability Grant, Care Dependency Grant, and Older Persons’ Grant.
TREASURY’S PUNITIVE SOCIAL GRANT CONDITIONS AN ATTACK ON THE POOR Read More »
The third iteration of Budget 2025 delivered by Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana today largely succeeds in absorbing a R69 Billion fiscal gap occasioned by dropping the proposed 0.5% VAT increase without defunding improved social and infrastructure spend altogether. To some extent it’s a holding budget to settle months of instability since the first version of the budget was rejected in March. The real work lies ahead, in eliminating waste and reforming the budget-making process.
BUDGET 2025: PLUGS GAPS; DEFERS REAL BUDGETARY REFORMS TO NEXT YEAR Read More »
As Minister Enoch Godongwana prepares to table the third version of the Budget, in as many months, it is time to acknowledge that the problem is no longer just about what’s in or out of the budget. The deeper issue is how the budget is built in the first place. The process has been chaotic and exclusionary, exposing how ill-suited the current budget-making framework is for a Government of National Unity (GNU). We urgently need new, inclusive protocols and decision-making structures fit for a coalition era. A GNU requires coordination, consultation, and compromise – not ambushes and ultimatums.
BUDGET 3.0: FIX THE PROCESS, NOT JUST THE NUMBERS Read More »
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey for Q1 2025 confirms what South Africans already feel in their homes and communities – unemployment is getting worse, not better. The official unemployment rate has climbed to a shocking 32.9%, up from 31.9% in Q4 2024. This translates to 8.2 million South Africans officially unemployed, with a further 3.5 million discouraged work seekers who have given up trying to find work, and 16.7 million people not economically active. In total, nearly 25 million South Africans of working age have no income to support themselves or their families.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RISES TO 32.9%, A BASIC INCOME GRANT IS A MORAL IMPERATIVE Read More »