Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za
3-minute read
14 August 2025 | 19:00 CAT

📸 SAFTU warns of deepening job crisis as 25 million South Africans remain unemployed or have stopped looking for work, calling for urgent economic reform to avert social instability.

South Africa’s unemployment crisis has reached alarming levels, with the latest Q2 2025 Quarterly Labour Force Survey by Statistics South Africa revealing that 25 million people are either unemployed or have given up on seeking work. Trade union federation SAFTU has described the situation as “nothing short of catastrophic,” warning that U.S. tariff hikes under Donald Trump could further devastate the economy.

In an interview with Radio Islam International, SAFTU spokesperson Newton Masuku stressed that the 30% punitive tariffs on South African goods, although not yet in full effect, would “decimate manufacturing, mining, and agriculture, wiping out thousands of jobs.” He cautioned that without urgent action, “the worst is yet to come.”

Masuku placed the blame on decades of failed economic policy. Since the adoption of neoliberal strategies in 1996, he argued, South Africa has suffered deindustrialisation, sluggish growth, and rising inequality, with the economy locked into raw mineral exports without beneficiation, effectively exporting jobs abroad.

The crisis disproportionately affects youth and women, the very groups the democratic dispensation was meant to uplift. “Almost half of the working population is unemployed, roaming the streets without hope,” Masuku said, warning that such inequality risks sparking social instability.

In response, SAFTU has called for an Emergency Presidential Economic Summit involving trade unions, progressive economists, civil society, and student organisations to chart an alternative path away from austerity and towards a state-led industrial strategy. This would include:

• Diversifying trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area, BRICS+, and global South partnerships.
• Rebuilding manufacturing, which has fallen from 21% of GDP to just 10%.
• Launching large-scale public employment drives in infrastructure, healthcare, and education.

Masuku also renewed calls for a universal basic income grant, describing it not as charity, but as an economic necessity in an age of automation and artificial intelligence. “You cannot have an economy growing when a critical mass is unemployed. Sales require buyers with purchasing power,” he argued.

If these demands are ignored, SAFTU warns it will mobilise members and the broader working class to push for its proposals. “We must reverse the continuous withdrawal of expenditure from the economy,” Masuku said. “More spending means more jobs, more hope, and a stronger South Africa.”

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Newton Masuku.