Old issues snag government in new year

The government faces mounting pressure in the new year to address a host of ongoing challenges from high unemployment to increasing inequality and public discontent.

In 2024, South Africa’s unemployment rate reached 33.9%, while gender-based violence and service delivery protests surged.

Corruption

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage emphasised government needed to tackle corruption more meaningfully. He said with the national budget coming in February, government must allocate more resources to the criminal justice system including the Investigating Directorate, the Special Investigating Unit, the Public Protector, the SA Revenue Service and the Asset Forfeiture Unit among others.

“These entities are underfunded and lack capacity, but addressing this requires financial investment to bring in specialists and expertise,” he said.

“Beyond funding, the money must be spent wisely to improve capacity and ensure these entities collaborate effectively through better systems.

“By focusing on these areas, we can start holding people accountable, reducing waste and ensuring public funds reach their intended purposes.

“Accountability is critical and government must begin holding individuals responsible for their actions. It has done far too little of that so far,” he said.

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Transparency in government spending

He emphasised the need for reforms in procurement systems. “Transparency is essential in government spending. Who is receiving resources and do these companies have the capacity to deliver on projects like building roads or maintaining infrastructure?

“We’ve seen far too many cases of tenders awarded to companies that abandon projects halfway, yet they are often overpaid or fully paid for incomplete work.

“We cannot afford further incidents of cadre deployment or a lack of accountability because government leaders are afraid to act,” he added, highlighting that evidence from the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture implicated many individuals, yet accountability has been minimal.

“Cases from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) have been poorly compiled, allowing individuals to escape justice.

“We need strong case-building by the NPA and the Investigating Directorate to ensure accountability.”

Jobs and SOEs

Matthew Parks, parliamentary coordinator of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), highlighted four areas the labour federation wants government to focus on including job creation, crime and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

“We want to see government expedite fixing the state as the economy depends upon functioning public services and SOEs, in particular Eskom, Transnet, Metro Rail, municipalities and frontline public services.

“Government also needs to stimulate growth including through more accessible funding for small, medium and micro enterprises, expediting the Public Procurement Act to support locally produced goods and ensuring the infrastructure programme is accelerated,” he said.

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In terms of legislation, he said Cosatu expected government to abandon some of its proposals to weaken workers’ hard won constitutional rights in the current Nedlac labour reform discussions, as well as to expedite and enforce the implementation of key laws, especially the national minimum wage.

“Paying workers a living wage is key to growing the economy.

“Parliament passed and the president assented to the Companies Amendment Acts requiring SOEs and listed companies to disclose to their shareholders, workers and the public their wage gap, including what the top 5% and bottom 5% earn as part of nudging them towards a more fair wage regime.

“Government needs to finalise these regulations and announce their implementation date for mid-2025.

“We also hope to get the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill to parliament,” he added.

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Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) spokesperson, said 2024 was characterised by a job loss bloodbath as a result of Covid and rolling blackouts rooted in the chaotic unplanned transition from fossil fuels to renewables.

“In 2024 we lost 700 jobs at Mercedes-Benz and 700 workers at Toyota and in the value chain are facing retrenchment. The economy is in a bad state on the job front. We must fight to live in a country whose vision is to take care of the young and old,” she said.

She said the country needed to get on the correct development path.

“We must lead in manufacturing and industrialisation on the back of our mineral endowment. We must lead in developing the latest technologies, and driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution at a cost we can afford.

“This must be the case on the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles and from fossil fuels to renewables.”