SAFTU faults South Africa's GDP growth

A measly 1.1% annual GDP growth has South Africa's biggest trade federation calling the entire economic model broken.

Q4 2025 GDP snapshot

• Fourth-quarter expansion hit just 0.4%, deeply underwhelming.
• Agriculture absolutely carried 2025 with 17.4% growth.
• Manufacturing shrank while construction nosedived by 7.8%.
• Five consecutive quarters of growth still feel sluggish.

SAFTU tears into the numbers

• Zwelinzima Vavi called the government's 1.6% forecast delusional.
• Holiday-season spending should have juiced Q4 way harder.
• Raw-material exports basically ship jobs overseas, per SAFTU.
• South Africa functions as a warehouse for foreign-made goods.

Unemployment stays catastrophic

• The narrow jobless rate sat at 33.2% in early 2024.
• Expanded unemployment clocks in roughly 10% higher than that.
• SAFTU insists 6% annual growth is needed to dent it.
• Gross fixed-capital formation contracted 2.5% through 2024.

Historical context on growth woes

• Load-shedding hammered 2023 GDP down to a revised 0.6%.
• Transnet's freight failures compounded logistical nightmares further.
• No blackouts since March 2025 helped domestic demand recover.
• Some forecasts peg 2026 growth between 1.5% and 2.0%.

SAFTU's reform demands

• Local manufacturing investment tops their priority list outright.
• R19.1 billion for unemployment relief got slammed as inadequate.
• Inflation-adjusted cuts to that fund total about 5.5%.
• Vavi wants a complete pivot away from raw-export dependency.