This week, the Cry of the Xcluded hosted a two-day People’s Summit on Austerity, Mass Unemployment and South Africa’s social crisis ahead of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).

The government is imposing the harshest level of austerity since the end of Apartheid with intense budget cuts planned for the next three to five years. Given South Africa’s commitment to fiscal consolidation, it is inevitable that the economic crisis and continuing job losses will plague the South African economy with devastating social consequences. Budget cuts to health, education, welfare, police and all the services that poor people depend on, have created a wasteland.

We call on South Africans, the working class, employed and unemployed, to unite and demand tangible solutions to our current economic crisis. It is deplorable that almost three decades into our democracy, the poor and the marginalised continue to live in inhumane conditions. The South African government continues to fail to deliver on its promise of a better life for all. Neoliberal policies and systematic corruption is crippling the country and ordinary South Africans are suffering.

On day three, we gathered outside Parliament to urge the government to reverse deadly budget cuts. We know that South Africa is not going bankrupt because there are trillions of Rand sitting in the hands of public funds. These are being used to enrich the already wealthy rather than investing in the future of the country. Read our declaration below.