Tuesday, 12 August 2025.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes with alarm the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey results released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) for the second quarter of 2025, which reveal a worsening jobs crisis in our country. The official unemployment rate has risen to 33.2%, up from 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025. This means 8.37 million South Africans are now without work, an increase of 140,000 from the previous quarter.

The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged job seekers, remains catastrophically high at 42.9%, translating to more than 11.3 million people without work or hope. These figures come at a time when our economy is stagnant, with no meaningful growth and no coherent plan from the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) to reverse the crisis. Under their watch, South Africa’s economy has been reduced to survival mode, with no investment in productive sectors, no industrial expansion, no rural development, and no serious intervention to create jobs.

Several devastating losses were encountered in several key industries. Community and social services lost 42,000 jobs, agriculture shed 24,000, finance also fell by 24,000, transport declined by 15,000, utilities lost 6,000, and manufacturing contracted by 5,000 jobs. The provincial breakdown shows equally troubling patterns as the Western Cape suffered a loss of 117,000 jobs, KwaZulu-Natal recorded a decline of 86,000, and the Northern Cape saw 28,000 fewer jobs. This regional picture reveals the complete absence of a coordinated national development strategy. The GNU has no plan to stimulate growth in struggling provinces, no plan to protect jobs in declining sectors, and no plan to channel resources where they are most needed.

The EFF calls, once again, for an urgent state-led mass public works programme targeting infrastructure, housing, industry, and rural development. We demand sectorspecific revitalisation plans for agriculture, manufacturing, and social services to reverse job losses, as well as a provincial employment strategy to address regionspecific economic weaknesses and ensure that no province is left behind. Above all, we call for an end to the neoliberal austerity policies imposed by the GNU, which strangle public investment, collapse essential services, and deepen unemployment.

The EFF remains committed to a radical programme of economic transformation that will place the wealth of this country in the hands of its people, create sustainable jobs, and restore dignity to all South Africans.

ISSUED BY ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Sinawo Thambo (National Spokesperson) 072 629 7422

Thembi Msane (National Spokesperson) 061 467 8169

Andiswa Madikazi (Parliament Media Liason) 069 516 4924

Thato Lebyane (Media Inquiries) 078 563 1581