Following Statistics South Africa’s publication of its Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which reported a 0.2 % decrease in unemployment between Q3 and Q4 of 2024, respectively from 32.1% to 31.9%, ActionSA has clapped back. The party whose President Herman Mashaba held an alternative SONA concurrently during the State’s official SONA on February 5, has again raised its voice of defiance against the regrettable rate of unemployment in South Africa – which it blames on what it deems “failed policies of the ANC.”
ActionSA, the party in a statement released on 18 Feb 2025, by its Member of Parliament, Alan Beesley, has once again come out strongly against the ruling party and its governance, saying, “South Africans deserve real solutions, not more empty promises and the continuation along a well-worn path of failed policies and inept implementation.”
“But let’s be clear: the problem is not a lack of funding. Across all spheres of government, billions are wasted and looted with impunity. Even within the Cabinet, Ministers who have failed in other spheres of government—or have been implicated in corruption and had judgments against them—remain protected without consequence.” The statement said.
In the statement the party also claimed that the ruling party’s culture of impunity was becoming beyond manageable as it place those it is supposed to help in vulnerable conditions instead of better condition, particularly referring to recent findings by the Auditor General which revealed gross mismanagement of the Compensation Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).
“ActionSA cannot stand by while unemployment remains a national crisis. We challenge all those who claim to stand for change: either show up and fight for real accountability or step out of the GNU.” The statement issued by Bessley proclaimed.
Adding to that, “South Africa’s unemployed cannot afford another year of suboptimal growth. It is long overdue for the President to be held to his own stated growth targets—he declared in the SONA that our economy must grow at 3% or more. Unless there are real political consequences for underperformance and non-performance, nothing will change, and we will continue to rank among the worst globally on unemployment indices.”
