Dear Minister of Finance, Mr President, Members of Cabinet and the bureaucrats who drafted this horrendous anti-poor budget,

We ask again: what part of mass unemployment do you not understand?

What part of 41% unemployment — one of the highest in the world — do you not grasp? 

Millions without work, without income, without hope, while the government speaks of “fiscal consolidation” and a primary budget surplus as if these are achievements that feed families. You refuse to consider the costs imposed on the poor and workers by more than a decade of austerity and the damage done to the public sector, local government and state enterprises by financial suffocation.

What part of 1.5 million children under five suffering from extreme malnutrition — 27% of children in that age group — do you not understand? What part of a housing backlog of over 3 million, or 6,351 murders in three months, do you not see as evidence of a society in deep crisis?

Yet in the face of this emergency, the budget protects privilege while asking the poor to endure more.

You increase medical tax credits by 3.2%, disproportionately benefiting higher-income earners, while the SRD grant remains R370 — far below the food poverty line of R855. In real terms, the SRD is cut again. The Child Support Grant also remains below the poverty line. Meanwhile, the Treasury withdraws proposed tax measures that would have raised billions, while celebrating inflationary tax bracket adjustments that mainly benefit the upper middle class.

You tell us there is no money. But there is money for tax concessions. There is money for corporate incentives. There is money for rising debt-service costs, which now consume a growing share of non-interest expenditure.

The Minister tells us the economy is “turning the corner”: a primary surplus, a stronger rand, and improved credit ratings. But macroeconomic indicators mean little when two-thirds of the population live in poverty and growth remains far below what is needed to reduce unemployment. But his corner, which has been supposedly turned, is based on passing phenomena, higher gold and other metal prices, and a stronger rand. No structural transformations have been undertaken, and this budget reinforces the very policies which have created the nightmare we live in.

This fiscal strategy assumes that if the state shrinks, the private sector will step in and deliver inclusive growth. But South Africa’s economic structure is deeply unequal, capital-intensive and financialised. Oligopolies shed jobs, hoard capital or shift profits abroad. Relaxing capital controls and liberalising markets does not build factories or create mass employment — it strengthens asset managers and investors.

If public sector employment had simply kept pace with population growth over the last decade, we would have 190,000 more public servants today. In 2020, the government admitted that 97,000 additional healthcare workers were needed by 2025. That year has passed, and instead of closing the gap, staffing levels have declined. The health and basic education baselines increase by less than what is required to reverse years of austerity. Post-school education faces real cuts. 

The government claims 2.5 million “work opportunities” through the Presidential Employment Stimulus. In reality, in 2025, there were only 195,481 opportunities, most of them temporary. The PES budget has been slashed by two-thirds since 2021. Temporary stipends are not a solution to structural unemployment.

Industrial policy remains fragmented and underfunded. Consolidated spending on industrialisation is projected to decline in real terms. Instead of leading with bold public investment and localisation strategies that create labour-intensive industries, the government continues to emphasise “comparative advantage” and private-led growth — the same logic that drove deindustrialisation in previous decades.

At the same time, Operation Vulindlela advances restructuring and liberalisation of public entities, expanding Public-Private Partnerships in energy, water and logistics. International experience shows that PPPs often create hidden liabilities, long-term fiscal burdens and higher tariffs. In electricity, the reliance on Independent Power Producers and Independent Transmission Projects risks locking in cost-reflective tariffs and guaranteed returns, with rising electricity prices passed on to households. In water, 55% of households still lack taps inside their homes, and only 2.8 million households access indigent support out of 11.2 million eligible for basic services. Privatisation cannot resolve deep municipal capacity failures.

This budget also fails to be gender-responsive. When the state withdraws, the burden shifts to women — through unpaid care work, through longer journeys for water, through managing shrinking household budgets. Fiscal policy is absolutely blind to these realities.

We are told resources are limited. But alternatives exist.

Taxing the top 1% could raise approximately R192 billion annually. SARS estimates R600 billion is lost to tax evasion each year, yet enforcement remains under-resourced. Reforming medical aid credits and retirement deductions could raise R53 billion. There is R1.8 trillion in idle capital in the economy. The GEPF’s R2.38 trillion in assets could be strategically deployed to finance domestic public investment and green industrialisation.

South Africa is not poor. It is profoundly unequal.

This budget entrenches inequality. It prioritises signalling credibility to investors over guaranteeing dignity to citizens.

Cry of the Xcluded rejects this budget.

We demand:

• An immediate increase in the SRD grant to at least the food poverty line.
• A clear, funded pathway to a permanent Basic Income Grant of R2000 within a three-year time period.
• Real increases sufficient to restore and expand public sector capacity to meet constitutional and social needs
• A mass employment and industrialisation strategy anchored in public investment and localisation.
• Progressive taxation on wealth and capital, and full resourcing of SARS.
• An end to privatisation by stealth that undermines public control of essential services.

A budget is a political document. It shows whose lives count.

This budget tells the poor you don’t count.

We refuse to accept this, and we give notice that we are organising, mobilising and resisting and will not rest until this country is transformed in the interest of the poor and working class.