Note to Editors: These remarks were delivered by ActionSA’s Member of the Standing Committee on Finance, Alan Beesley MP, during the National Assembly’s consideration of the 2025 Fiscal Framework, held today at the CTICC.
Honourable Speaker,
One year into the so-called Government of National Unity, South Africa finds itself in a crises. The economy is stagnant, thousands of South Africans are losing their jobs every day, and poverty and inequality are deepening.
According to the latest quarterly unemployment figures, nearly 300 000 people lost their jobs. That means today, 5 000 South Africans will go home and tell their families they’ve lost their jobs, another 5 000 tomorrow, and every working day after that.
There are now 8.23 million unemployed South Africans, with a further 3.5 million so discouraged that they’ve given up even trying to find work. That is 12 million people without opportunity, without support and without hope.
But these are not just numbers. They are the lived experiences of millions of South Africans, real people suffering under a government that has neglected them.
When evaluating the fiscal framework, we must first ask what it does to create jobs, because only sustained economic growth of at least 3 to 4% will lift South Africans out of unemployment. The painful truth is that we have not seen growth above 1% since the end of 2023. Even now, Budget 3.0 projects an overly optimistic, but still inadequate, growth rate of 1.4%. As long as growth remains this low, the heartbreak of joblessness will persist.
This stagnation is not a mystery. It is the result of a government bereft of bold, pragmatic ideas, and one that is openly at war with itself. Parties in the GNU spend more time taking each other to court than sitting down to craft meaningful reforms. One year since its formation, not a single new economic policy has been introduced. Meanwhile, key industries like manufacturing, construction and mining continue to bleed jobs.
Honourable Speaker, ActionSA was among the first to oppose the proposed VAT hike. We said it was immoral to ask the poor to pay more for essentials while corruption goes unchecked. We welcome the Minister’s decision to scrap the VAT increase and are proud of the role we played in securing this outcome.
We also welcome the R7.5 billion allocated to SARS over the medium term, an investment ActionSA championed. We thank the Finance Minister for this inclusion. While we reject the R22 billion raised through regressive taxes like fuel levy hikes and bracket creep, strengthening SARS is essential.
Properly funded, SARS can close the tax gap, tackle illicit trade, and boost revenue collection by a conservative R50 billion annually. We are encouraged that the Minister has committed to monitoring SARS’s performance and will provide tax relief in next year’s budget if revenue exceeds targets.
We cannot keep taxing struggling South Africans while corruption continues in entities like the RAF, Compensation Fund, UIF and various SETAs. The National Prosecuting Authority must not only be properly resourced but also much better led. Without a change in leadership and management, the NPA will remain unable to prosecute corruption – public enemy number one.
Speaker, in conclusion: This fiscal framework is a GNU budget, and every party in the GNU must be held accountable if jobs continue to disappear and growth fails to materialise.
ActionSA, as a pragmatic, constructive, consistent party, will support this fiscal framework, not because it is perfect, but because, as a country, we cannot afford any further delays.
Budget 3.0: Economic Stagnation and Unemployment Crisis Demand Urgent Reform
Note to Editors: These remarks were delivered by ActionSA’s Member of the Standing Committee on Finance, Alan Beesley MP, during the National Assembly’s consideration of the 2025 Fiscal Framework, held today at the CTICC.
Honourable Speaker,
One year into the so-called Government of National Unity, South Africa finds itself in a crises. The economy is stagnant, thousands of South Africans are losing their jobs every day, and poverty and inequality are deepening.
According to the latest quarterly unemployment figures, nearly 300 000 people lost their jobs. That means today, 5 000 South Africans will go home and tell their families they’ve lost their jobs, another 5 000 tomorrow, and every working day after that.
There are now 8.23 million unemployed South Africans, with a further 3.5 million so discouraged that they’ve given up even trying to find work. That is 12 million people without opportunity, without support and without hope.
But these are not just numbers. They are the lived experiences of millions of South Africans, real people suffering under a government that has neglected them.
When evaluating the fiscal framework, we must first ask what it does to create jobs, because only sustained economic growth of at least 3 to 4% will lift South Africans out of unemployment. The painful truth is that we have not seen growth above 1% since the end of 2023. Even now, Budget 3.0 projects an overly optimistic, but still inadequate, growth rate of 1.4%. As long as growth remains this low, the heartbreak of joblessness will persist.
This stagnation is not a mystery. It is the result of a government bereft of bold, pragmatic ideas, and one that is openly at war with itself. Parties in the GNU spend more time taking each other to court than sitting down to craft meaningful reforms. One year since its formation, not a single new economic policy has been introduced. Meanwhile, key industries like manufacturing, construction and mining continue to bleed jobs.
Honourable Speaker, ActionSA was among the first to oppose the proposed VAT hike. We said it was immoral to ask the poor to pay more for essentials while corruption goes unchecked. We welcome the Minister’s decision to scrap the VAT increase and are proud of the role we played in securing this outcome.
We also welcome the R7.5 billion allocated to SARS over the medium term, an investment ActionSA championed. We thank the Finance Minister for this inclusion. While we reject the R22 billion raised through regressive taxes like fuel levy hikes and bracket creep, strengthening SARS is essential.
Properly funded, SARS can close the tax gap, tackle illicit trade, and boost revenue collection by a conservative R50 billion annually. We are encouraged that the Minister has committed to monitoring SARS’s performance and will provide tax relief in next year’s budget if revenue exceeds targets.
We cannot keep taxing struggling South Africans while corruption continues in entities like the RAF, Compensation Fund, UIF and various SETAs. The National Prosecuting Authority must not only be properly resourced but also much better led. Without a change in leadership and management, the NPA will remain unable to prosecute corruption – public enemy number one.
Speaker, in conclusion: This fiscal framework is a GNU budget, and every party in the GNU must be held accountable if jobs continue to disappear and growth fails to materialise.
ActionSA, as a pragmatic, constructive, consistent party, will support this fiscal framework, not because it is perfect, but because, as a country, we cannot afford any further delays.