ActionSA is deeply concerned by the latest GDP figures released today, showing that South Africa’s economy grew by just 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 1.1% for the full year. These numbers confirm an economy stagnating while the Government of National Unity (GNU) sits on its hands.
Nearly two years into its tenure, the GNU has yet to present a credible, coherent plan to lift the country out of its low-growth trap. Instead, South Africans are left to watch the listless economy drift, unemployment remain entrenched, and businesses struggle to survive.
With GDP growing by only 1.1% in 2025, against population growth of around 1.4% to 1.5%, GDP per capita is effectively shrinking. In practical terms, this means living standards are declining, and ordinary South Africans are poorer today than they were a year ago.
Meanwhile, the illicit economy continues to flourish. Estimates from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) indicate that it has grown from roughly 5% of GDP two decades ago to between 12% and 15% today, worth R800 billion to R1.2 trillion annually and costing the fiscus R200 billion to R300 billion in lost tax revenue every year. This is not just lost revenue: illicit trade undermines legitimate businesses that pay taxes, comply with labour laws, and create jobs. By failing to clamp down on criminal networks operating in sectors such as tobacco, alcohol, and retail, the government allows illegal markets to crowd out the formal economy.
The sectoral breakdown is equally alarming. Manufacturing contracted by 1.2% in 2025, signalling persistent weakness in a key productive sector. Even more concerning is construction, which shrank by 4.4%, leaving a historically vital job-creating industry in freefall, despite claims to have turned SA into a “construction site”. These declines reflect a government that has failed to create the conditions necessary for investment, growth, and employment.
South Africa’s stagnation stands in stark contrast to the global environment. Emerging and developing economies are growing at roughly 4%, and Sub-Saharan Africa is expanding at a similar pace. South Africa’s weak performance is not inevitable but the direct result of policy paralysis and a government unable to implement a coherent economic reform agenda.
South Africans deserve a government that treats economic growth as a national mission, not a communications exercise. ActionSA will continue to push for decisive reforms to restore state capacity, crack down on illicit trade, unlock infrastructure investment, and create the conditions needed to grow the economy and put South Africans back to work.
ActionSA Slams GNU for Sitting on Its Hands as Economy Stalls
ActionSA is deeply concerned by the latest GDP figures released today, showing that South Africa’s economy grew by just 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 1.1% for the full year. These numbers confirm an economy stagnating while the Government of National Unity (GNU) sits on its hands.
Nearly two years into its tenure, the GNU has yet to present a credible, coherent plan to lift the country out of its low-growth trap. Instead, South Africans are left to watch the listless economy drift, unemployment remain entrenched, and businesses struggle to survive.
With GDP growing by only 1.1% in 2025, against population growth of around 1.4% to 1.5%, GDP per capita is effectively shrinking. In practical terms, this means living standards are declining, and ordinary South Africans are poorer today than they were a year ago.
Meanwhile, the illicit economy continues to flourish. Estimates from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) indicate that it has grown from roughly 5% of GDP two decades ago to between 12% and 15% today, worth R800 billion to R1.2 trillion annually and costing the fiscus R200 billion to R300 billion in lost tax revenue every year. This is not just lost revenue: illicit trade undermines legitimate businesses that pay taxes, comply with labour laws, and create jobs. By failing to clamp down on criminal networks operating in sectors such as tobacco, alcohol, and retail, the government allows illegal markets to crowd out the formal economy.
The sectoral breakdown is equally alarming. Manufacturing contracted by 1.2% in 2025, signalling persistent weakness in a key productive sector. Even more concerning is construction, which shrank by 4.4%, leaving a historically vital job-creating industry in freefall, despite claims to have turned SA into a “construction site”. These declines reflect a government that has failed to create the conditions necessary for investment, growth, and employment.
South Africa’s stagnation stands in stark contrast to the global environment. Emerging and developing economies are growing at roughly 4%, and Sub-Saharan Africa is expanding at a similar pace. South Africa’s weak performance is not inevitable but the direct result of policy paralysis and a government unable to implement a coherent economic reform agenda.
South Africans deserve a government that treats economic growth as a national mission, not a communications exercise. ActionSA will continue to push for decisive reforms to restore state capacity, crack down on illicit trade, unlock infrastructure investment, and create the conditions needed to grow the economy and put South Africans back to work.