SA's Jobs Crisis: A Reflection of Capitalism's Failures
Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) hold placards and shout slogans in support of a nationwide demonstration in Durban on February 13, 2019. The ANC has failed to prioritize job creation in its economic policies, says the writer.
Image: AFP
Dr Trevor Ngwane
Are South Africans looking for a sign?
After 30 years of democratic governance, millions of working-class and poor people continue to await the promised benefits of liberation after decades of struggle. Some are losing hope that meaningful change will occur for themselves and their children. There are still far too many continuities of oppression and exploitation from the past.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke's recent release of the country's unemployment figures may be the sign the masses have been waiting for. He informed the nation that approximately 12 million workers are unemployed, with youth aged 15 to 24 bearing the brunt of the crisis. About 3.2 million of them are idling at home, neither working nor attending educational institutions. Their future is bleak.
Is the unemployment crisis in South Africa a sign that the economic system is failing, that our society is unviable, and that we are staring into the abyss of a social apocalypse?
Using the expanded definition of unemployment, 43,1% of workers were unemployed in the first quarter of 2025, marking a 1.2-percentage-point increase from the previous quarter. Conditions are worsening, not improving. This suggests systemic failure, indicating that the economy is broken and unsustainable.
The unemployment rate is not merely a statistic; it is a crime scene. Unemployment represents a form of structural violence. Daily life poses a challenge for the majority of people. Everything becomes a problem when you are both unemployed and poor: food, water, electricity, housing, healthcare, education, transport, and so on. Deprivation and destitution define your existence, leaving you perpetually on the brink of despair and hopelessness.
At times, it seems as though there is neither a present nor a future. Hardship and suffering have been normalized in post-apartheid South Africa.
Unemployment is not the worst of the morbid symptoms found in a society caught at a crossroads in its history. Post-war Germany and the USA faced a similar predicament in the 1930s following the 1929 Great Depression: mass unemployment, economic despair, and a crisis of legitimacy in their respective political systems.
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Hitler led the Volk down the path of fascism, providing them with scapegoats and authoritarianism. Roosevelt adhered to the democratic course, presenting a vision of hope and reform. Hitler directed Germany toward war and disaster, while Roosevelt steered the USA toward reforming capitalism through a bold program of public works, financial regulation, and social safety nets.
Since the 2008 global economic meltdown, a crisis rooted in neoliberal capitalism, the world has been plunged into uncertainty, insecurity, and instability. Once again, the world finds itself at a crossroads. Under President Trump, the U.S. government drives a populist right-wing shift in global politics. There is a movement to retreat from liberal democracy and the globalization agenda of neoliberalism.
Governments and political leaders are forced to choose which path to take. This choice is often framed as democracy versus authoritarianism, multilateralism versus unilateralism, open trade versus protectionism, the Global North versus the Global South, etc. At the heart of it all lies the question of how to survive and thrive as nations, classes, and individuals amid the conditions of a capitalist crisis.
The system has long passed its expiration date. Every capitalist government or enterprise strives to save itself, maintain its economic power, and shift the burden of the crisis onto others. South Africa finds itself in this predicament.
In its 30 years of governance, the ANC has failed to extract the country from the ongoing dysfunctions of racial capitalism, including a low growth rate, a small domestic market, the non-beneficiation of its mineral resources, and a high unemployment rate, to name just a few of its shortcomings. It is fair to say that the ANC came to power during a challenging economic period.
The 1940-1970 Golden Age of Capitalism, marked by significant economic growth, high productivity, low unemployment, and prosperity for Western European and East Asian countries, had long since ended, and neoliberalism took hold. Contrary to the Freedom Charter, the ANC was never allowed to seize 'the commanding heights of the economy'; instead, ANC leaders accepted the dominance of neoliberal ideology without resistance.
From all accounts, neoliberalism devastated the South African economy, fulfilling its agenda of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.South Africa lost millions of jobs due to the opening of the economy by World Trade Organization policy; manufacturing was nearly decimated by the ANC's eagerness to embrace unfettered global trade; billions of rands exited the country when the ANC removed exchange controls; the economy was nearly suffocated by the South African Reserve Bank's high interest rates and dogmatic inflation targeting.
These misguided policies have contributed to unemployment. The ANC has failed to prioritize job creation in its economic policies. It has been timid when faced with vested interests that sought to benefit from the country's economic resources at the expense of the working class and the poor.
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