The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), alongside millions of embattled workers, has high expectations for the 2026/27 Budget to be tabled at Parliament on 25 February by Finance Minister, Mr. E. Godongwana. It is critical that the Budget responds decisively to the pains felt by the working class and provides hope to society. The Budget must be anchored upon tackling our dangerously high unemployment rate of 41.1% and weak 1.4% economic growth, entrenched levels of poverty and inequality, and endemic crime and corruption.
COSATU welcomes the massive progress achieved by the African National Congress led government, Eskom and municipal workers in ending the crisis of loadshedding. It is critical that further support be given towards reducing the ever-rising price of electricity. Key to making electricity affordable is for all consumers to be moved to prepaid electricity billing and dealing with the R100 billion municipal debt, corruption and other acts of criminality, wasteful expenditure and enabling Eskom to enter the renewable energy space.
Positive turnarounds being achieved at Transnet and Metro Rail must be expedited, including reducing Transnet’s debt burden, accelerating infrastructure investments and putting in place security to protect commuters and property. Efficient rail and ports are key to thousands of mining, manufacturing and agricultural jobs and providing 10 million urban commuters cheap and quick means to get to work.
Decisive turnaround plans need to be put in place for under siege State-Owned Enterprises, in particular Denel, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Post Office and Postbank which continue to struggle under incompetent management.
Government needs to end the era of failed neo-liberal austerity policies and budgets, and equip frontline public services with the funds, personnel and infrastructure they need to fulfill their constitutional obligations and developmental mandates. The remarkable turnaround at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and South African Airways confirms that public institutions with competent management, vacancies filled, critical skills recruited, corrupt elements removed, and modern infrastructure; will deliver the public services that the working class and the economy depend upon and generate the tax revenues the state requires to fund them. This includes defending and rolling out the National Health Insurance as the pathway to universal healthcare.
The deteriorating state of many municipalities is extremely worrying and requires urgent interventions, in particular to remove corrupt leaders, restore municipal services and ensure that workers’ salaries and third-party deductions are paid without fail. Support must be extended to all struggling municipalities and the new municipal funding model fast tracked. Eskom, Sanral and the Department of Water and Sanitation must be brought in to ensure the delivery of essential services and infrastructure, and the capacitation of dysfunctional municipalities.
South Africa can no longer afford to treat criminals with kid gloves nor allow violent crimes become the norm, especially in working class communities. An aggressive Marshall Plan led by President Cyril Ramaphosa must be our priority. Our law enforcement organs, in particular the South African Police Service, Hawks, National Prosecuting Authority and the Judiciary need strong leadership, the filling of critical vacancies and recruitment of specialised skills, removal of corrupt and criminal elements, and massive investments in infrastructure capacity from working vehicles to state of the art IT, communications and forensic databases. To win this war, the same decisive leadership, mobilisation of resources and collective ownership by society as was done to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, is an absolute necessity.
A bold stimulus package mobilising resources from the Fiscus, Developmental Finance Institutions and private banks and investment funds is long overdue to make financing available at the pace and scale required for industrialisation, export sectors and SMMEs; to deliver quality infrastructure and create the millions of decent jobs needed. Tax incentives and rebates must be deployed to ramp up local procurement. Relief packages for workers, businesses and sectors affected by global trade turmoil and other challenges, including fixing the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employment Relief Scheme can no longer wait.
Whilst the obstacles hindering economic growth are tackled, relief for the poor and unemployed must be enhanced, in particular raising the SRD Grant to the Food Poverty Line and expanding the Presidential Employment Stimulus to one million young people by 1 April and 2 million by 1 November 2026. Other public employment programmes must be overhauled to ensure compliance with the National Minimum Wage and that they deliver the skills and experience essential for participants to find permanent decent work or become entrepreneurs.
We expect government to work with social partners to fix the Unemployment Insurance and Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Funds as well as to ensure that the CCMA has the resources it requires to defend workers’ hard-won rights. We need to ramp up inspections of workplaces notorious for undermining labour laws, including hiring the 10 000 permanent and 20 000 contract labour inspectors.
SARS has been one of this administration’s success stories, improving tax compliance from 61% to 67%. It needs to be given the resources to raise tax compliance to 75% over the next three years, thus generating an additional R200 billion in revenue owed to the state and enabling government to fulfill its developmental mandates. SARS must also be tasked to conduct lifestyle audits of high wealth individuals, including public representatives and senior management of the state and SOEs. Tax loopholes exploited by the rich must be closed and the tax burden upon the working and middle classes reduced.
We applaud the important green shoots emerging as we dismantle the chapter of state capture and corruption, but we cannot afford to continue to normalise anemic 1% economic growth or the ticking time bomb of 41.1% unemployment. Government must act decisively and deliver on these key issues if we are to reach the 3% plus economic growth necessary to see unemployment fall and hope arise. The state must be seen to deal with those who break the law, in particular stealing public funds. Key to turning South Africa around is capacitating the state, stimulating economic growth and providing relief to the poor and unemployed.
Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Mobile: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za