ActionSA condemns the Government of National Unity (GNU) for its continued failure to support South African SMMEs, township entrepreneurs, and informal traders, a failure that has resulted in nearly 300,000 informal-sector workers losing their jobs in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, along with the dignity and livelihoods they provide.
For the year as a whole, the GNU only managed to create 20,000 jobs, highlighting the depth of government neglect. The slight decline in unemployment for the quarter from 31.9% to 31.4% is not a sign of recovery, as 233,000 South Africans became discouraged and stopped looking for work. This is not a growing economy as boasted by the President in his State of the Nation Address. It is despair.
While the government celebrates a marginal drop in the official unemployment rate, the reality is stark. The very sector that should be absorbing unemployment – small, informal, and township-based enterprises – is collapsing and increasingly being taken over by illegal foreigners.
These figures align with the IMF’s recent country report, which highlighted how South Africa’s regulatory environment actively works against entrepreneurs. The IMF’s analysis shows that burdensome licensing and permitting requirements depress employment growth, with small firms disproportionately affected, often twice as much as larger businesses. In a country where SMMEs should be the engine of employment, government red tape is throttling their ability to expand and hire.
Township entrepreneurs and informal traders face punitive regulatory frameworks, excessive licensing, and heavy enforcement powers that discourage formalisation and growth. The IMF estimates that closing just half of South Africa’s regulatory gap relative to emerging-market peers could lift GDP by 2%, creating much-needed jobs. Instead, the GNU continues to allow red tape, policy uncertainty, and sky-high electricity costs to persist, deepening stagnation and entrenching unemployment.
Meanwhile, manufacturing has suffered catastrophic losses, with 127,000 jobs lost in 2025, alongside a steady stream of plant closures in energy-intensive industries, automotive components, steel, food processing, and textiles. Mining houses have also placed operations on care and maintenance due to cost pressures and permitting delays. The result is fewer factories, fewer supply chains, and fewer jobs, driving continued economic stagnation for South Africans who can least afford it.
ActionSA calls on the government to urgently implement pro-SMME reforms, cut red tape, and prioritise the creation of real jobs, particularly in the informal sector, before the economic and social costs become irreparable.
ActionSA Warns of Catastrophic Informal Job Losses as GNU Neglects Township Entrepreneurs
ActionSA condemns the Government of National Unity (GNU) for its continued failure to support South African SMMEs, township entrepreneurs, and informal traders, a failure that has resulted in nearly 300,000 informal-sector workers losing their jobs in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, along with the dignity and livelihoods they provide.
For the year as a whole, the GNU only managed to create 20,000 jobs, highlighting the depth of government neglect. The slight decline in unemployment for the quarter from 31.9% to 31.4% is not a sign of recovery, as 233,000 South Africans became discouraged and stopped looking for work. This is not a growing economy as boasted by the President in his State of the Nation Address. It is despair.
While the government celebrates a marginal drop in the official unemployment rate, the reality is stark. The very sector that should be absorbing unemployment – small, informal, and township-based enterprises – is collapsing and increasingly being taken over by illegal foreigners.
These figures align with the IMF’s recent country report, which highlighted how South Africa’s regulatory environment actively works against entrepreneurs. The IMF’s analysis shows that burdensome licensing and permitting requirements depress employment growth, with small firms disproportionately affected, often twice as much as larger businesses. In a country where SMMEs should be the engine of employment, government red tape is throttling their ability to expand and hire.
Township entrepreneurs and informal traders face punitive regulatory frameworks, excessive licensing, and heavy enforcement powers that discourage formalisation and growth. The IMF estimates that closing just half of South Africa’s regulatory gap relative to emerging-market peers could lift GDP by 2%, creating much-needed jobs. Instead, the GNU continues to allow red tape, policy uncertainty, and sky-high electricity costs to persist, deepening stagnation and entrenching unemployment.
Meanwhile, manufacturing has suffered catastrophic losses, with 127,000 jobs lost in 2025, alongside a steady stream of plant closures in energy-intensive industries, automotive components, steel, food processing, and textiles. Mining houses have also placed operations on care and maintenance due to cost pressures and permitting delays. The result is fewer factories, fewer supply chains, and fewer jobs, driving continued economic stagnation for South Africans who can least afford it.
ActionSA calls on the government to urgently implement pro-SMME reforms, cut red tape, and prioritise the creation of real jobs, particularly in the informal sector, before the economic and social costs become irreparable.