The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] fully supports the Anti-Austerity March to Parliament on Wednesday 21st October 2026.
The march is convened against the background of the 2026 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement [MTBPS] to be presented in Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana on the 21st October.
The anti-austerity march, brought together under the principles of a People’s Budget, represents a united front of progressive forces comprising of trade unions, social justice formations, activists and community organisations.
The annual demonstration is united in the common objective that demands our economic system places the needs and interests of workers and the poor above those of the elites and the privileged few.
Our support for this march is rooted in the daily struggles confronting workers and the broader working class, who continue to bear the devastating consequences of the rolling programme of austerity imposed by National Treasury.
Our support for this march is also rooted in the daily workplace struggles our members and public sector workers face. The consequences of austerity are particularly devastating for workers in the public service, who are expected to deliver quality services under conditions of mass staff shortages, inadequate resources, deteriorating infrastructure and increasing workloads. The freezing of posts, failure to fill critical vacancies and budget cuts across government departments weaken the public service and compromise the quality of services to the working-class.
This annual demonstration illustrates our resolve to fight and struggle against the continued implementation of neoliberal macroeconomic policies that undermine the developmental capacity of the state.
Lastly, as NEHAWU, we reaffirm our longstanding opposition to austerity measures, privatisation, outsourcing and agentification. We are calling for an end to a National Treasury that is acting unilaterally with no mandate from the masses and that is actively privatising and weakening state capacity impacting its ability deliver basic constitutionally enshrined obligations. We remain convinced that quality public services, decent work and development can only be achieved through a capable developmental state driven by the interests of the working class and the poor.
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Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat.
Zola Saphetha (General Secretary) at 082 558 5968; Welcome Mnisi (1st Deputy General Secretary) at 082 455 2897; Baxolise Mali (2nd Deputy General Secretary) at 066 305 0591 or Lwazi Nkolonzi (NEHAWU National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwazin@nehawu.org.za