by Dev_SACCAWU | Labour Market News
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) presented its submission on the 2026/27 Budget’s Division of Revenue Bill and the 2025/26 Budget’s Special Appropriation Bill to Parliament’s Standing Committee: Appropriation.
COSATU is extremely disappointed with the lackluster 2026/27 Budget and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. Whilst appreciating that there are some important allocations that COSATU campaigned for in the Budget, it fails to respond decisively to the fundamental crises facing the working class and the economy, in particular a 41.1% unemployment rate, economic growth far below the 3% needed to create jobs, struggling public and municipal services and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), entrenched levels of poverty and inequality, and endemic crime and corruption. Tragically, the Budget is focused on balancing the books, not on aggressively kickstarting economic growth or tackling unemployment.
Key to providing an environment where the economy can take off and the lives of the working class are improved is to ensure that frontline public services have the resources needed to fulfill their constitutional and developmental mandates. We welcome investments in health and education, in particular R18 billion allocations to enroll 300 000 Grade R learners; R7.8 billion for the National Health Insurance Grants, plus R24 billion for revitalising public healthcare, R92 billion for district health programmes, the building of seven new provincial hospitals and R21 billion for the employment of doctors over the MTEF.
Local government remains the state’s Achilles’ heel, with more than 60% of municipalities in financial distress and many struggling to provide basic services or pay staff. The allocation of R27 billion to improve metros’ abilities to provide basic services and bill correctly is critical, as are plans to strengthen the national government’s ability to timeously intervene in and hold failing municipalities accountable. Plans to connect over 320 000 houses to electricity and roll out 258 000 smart meters are welcome. However, these interventions do not go far enough to capacitate often highly dysfunctional municipalities, tackle rising municipal debt, or deal with corrupt and incompetent municipal management.
Much more must be done to enable Eskom to reduce the price of electricity, plus return Transnet and Metro Rail to full capacity to unlock mining, manufacturing, and agricultural jobs as well as to provide efficient public transport for urban workers. The substantial infrastructure investments over the MTEF of R1.07 trillion, in particular for energy, rail, ports, water, roads, and airports, will help boost economic growth and jobs.
The absence of a bold stimulus package for SMMES, industrial and export sectors badly needed for boosting economic growth and jobs is deeply worrying. It is beyond disappointing that the Presidential Employment Programme has been cut by half despite SONA’s commitments to increase it.
Although there are important allocations for some frontline services and infrastructure, COSATU is extremely frustrated that Treasury and government collectively, have once again reduced the Budget to balancing books and missed the opportunity to table a bold stimulus package that would fix public and municipal services, spur economic growth, boost employment, provide relief for the poor and unemployed, and ramp up tax compliance. COSATU will be seeking urgent engagements with Treasury and government to ensure these failures are addressed. We cannot afford to continue to normalise 1% economic growth nor 41.1% unemployment. The patience of the working class and society are not unlimited.
Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Mobile: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za
Source: https://mediadon.co.za/cosatu-presented-its-submission-on-the-budgets-division-of-revenue-and-special-appropriations-bills/
by Dev_SACCAWU | Labour Market News
Understanding South Africa’s economic disappearance beyond unemployment
South Africa’s economic debate has become fixated on a single statistic: the unemployment rate. It rises, falls, shocks and disappoints, dominating headlines and political debate. Yet that number increasingly obscures a deeper structural shift unfolding beneath the surface of the labour market. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the official unemployment rate eased to 31.4%.
According to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, approximately 17.1 million South Africans were employed in the fourth quarter of 2025. At the same time, another 17.1 million people aged 15–64 were classified as outside the labour force. In other words, the number of working-age South Africans who are not even counted as participants in the labour market is now roughly equal to the number who are employed. This is not a typical labour market imbalance. It is a structural fracture. Public debate tends to focus on the 7.8 million officially unemployed. Yet beyond that figure lies a far larger pool of economic exclusion.
Stats SA reports that 3.7 million people are now classified as discouraged work seekers — individuals who want work but have stopped searching because they believe none is available. Discouraged workers make up the overwhelming majority of the country’s 4.6 million “potential labour force”, representing more than 80% of that group.These numbers tell a story that is rarely discussed openly: South Africa is not only struggling to create jobs. It is gradually producing a population that is withdrawing from the labour market altogether. The problem begins early.
Among young people aged 15 to 24, roughly three quarters are classified as inactive, meaning they are neither working nor actively seeking work. Around 34% of youth in this age group are not in employment, education ortraining (NEET). This translates to millions of young South Africans entering adulthood without meaningful attachment to work, training or productive economic activity. Even more concerning is that many of those counted as unemployed have never worked before.
Stats SA data show that a large share of unemployed youth lack any prior work experience, meaning the labour market is failing not only to reabsorb workers, but to initiate millions into economic life in the first place.This dynamic places South Africa in an unusual position compared with many other emerging economies.
The OECD’s 2025 Economic Survey of South Africa notes that the country has the lowest employment rate among G20 and OECD economies, combined with one of the highest unemployment rates. Yet unlike countries such as India, Indonesia or Mexico, South Africa does not compensate through a large informal sector. In many emerging economies, people excluded from formal employment often find opportunities in small enterprise, street trade or informal work.
In South Africa, that transition appears far weaker. When formal jobs fail to expand, large numbers of people do not shift into informal employment. Instead, many simply do not workat all.This distinction is critical. It means that labour market exclusion in South Africa often leads not to alternative forms of productivity, but to prolonged inactivity.
Slow economic growth has compounded the challenge. The International Monetary Fund projects South Africa’s economy to grow at only about 1.4% in 2026, reflecting persistent structural constraints, infrastructure bottlenecks and governance challenges. In a low-growth environment, labour markets become brittle. Entry opportunities shrink, competition intensifies,and the pathways into work narrow. For young people attempting to enter the labour market for the first time,the barriers become even higher. Yet growth alone cannot explain the scale of the problem.
South Africa’s labour market is also shaped by spatial inequality, transport costs and the lingering geography of apartheid-era planning. Many job seekers live far from economic centres, facing high commuting costs that effectively price them out of employment opportunities.The OECD notes that long travel times and high transport costs continue to limit labour mobility, reinforcing exclusion even where jobs exist.These structural factors help explain why improvements in the unemployment rate can coexist with deepening economic fragility.
A labour market can appear marginally healthier on paper while becoming more hollow beneath the surface.The language used to describe South Africa’s employment crisis therefore matters more than we often realise. Unemployment suggests waiting. Economic disappearance suggests erosion. It is the erosion of confidence, the erosion of skills through inactivity, the erosion of work identity before it ever forms. Once individuals spend extended periods outside the labour market, re-entry becomes significantly more difficult. When exclusion becomes structural, unemployment statistics begin to describe only the visible edge of a much deeper economic fracture.
A society cannot sustain long-term stability when millions of its citizens exist inside the population but outside the economy. Even debates around social grants are frequently misunderstood in this context.
The Social Relief of Distressgrant, currently R370 per month, sits well below the poverty line and cannot plausibly substitute for employment income. The evidence suggests the problem is not excessive comfort outside the labour market, but insufficient access into it.South Africa therefore faces a challenge that goes beyond job creation alone.The country must rebuild the mechanisms that connect people to economic participation in the first place —from education-to-work transitions and apprenticeships to labour mobility, enterprise formation and the basic infrastructure that allows people to reach opportunities.
The central question for policymakers can no longer be limited to how many people are unemployed. It must also ask: how many people are becoming unreachable by the economy itself? Because when millions begin to disappear from the labour market entirely, the crisis is no longer unemployment alone. It is economic disappearance. And once disappearance becomes normal, recovery becomes far harder than any quarterly statistic is able to reveal.
Nomvula Zeldah Mabuza is a Risk Governance and Compliance Specialist with extensive experience in strategic risk and industrial operations. She holds a Diploma in Business Management (Accounting) from Brunel University, UK, and is an MBA candidate at Henley Business School, South Africa.
*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/understanding-south-africas-economic-disappearance-beyond-unemployment/ar-AA1XOfzD?ocid=BingNewsVerp
by Dev_SACCAWU | Labour Market News
Employment and Labour Minister, Nomakhosazana Meth / X: @deptoflabour
With only 2%-5% of workplaces currently inspected, the expansion aims to close longstanding enforcement gaps.
Stephen Grootes speaks to Tony Healy, labour consultant at Icon Labour Consultants, about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan to hire 10,000 additional labour inspectors in South Africa.
A proposal by President Cyril Ramaphosa to dramatically increase the number of labour inspectors in South Africa could cost the government about R10 billion over the next three years, according to new information released in parliament.The figures were provided by employment and labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth in a written reply to a parliamentary question from Andile Nchabeleng of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party.The plan, first announced during the State of the Nation Address in February, would see 10,000 additional labour inspectors hired to help enforce labour laws across the country.
With only 2%-5% of workplaces currently inspected, the expansion aims to close longstanding enforcement gaps.
According to the Department of Employment and Labour, the current inspection system only reaches a very small portion of workplaces.
Data collected by the department over almost 20 years shows that only about 2% to 5% of workplaces in South Africa have been inspected or reached through enforcement and education programmes.
And with South Africa’s large labour market, the department says it is difficult for inspectors to monitor working conditions and ensure companies follow labour laws.
Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Tony Healy, labour consultant at Icon Labour Consultants says there seems to be a focus by government to remedy this.
“What we’re seeing now is a very significant step whereby the number of inspectors is being increased by more than five fold, as is the budget. And that will take the number of annual workplace inspections from around 300,000 to approximately 1,6 million.”- Tony Healy, labour consultant – Icon Labour Consultants
“It’s going to take some time for these inspectors to be trained up in the various pieces of legislation. The whole thing of the employment of foreign nationals is a huge focus. Payment of minimum wages is a huge focus, and health and safety issues are a huge focus.”- Tony Healy, labour consultant – Icon Labour Consultants
“The intention is, as we’ve seen in so many areas of law, what’s the point of having the legislation if there’s no compliance? There’s absolutely no doubt, this is a significant step, and is most certainly going to increase the monitoring and enforcement of compliance in the field of labour law…”- Tony Healy, labour consultant – Icon Labour Consultants.
Source: https://www.ewn.co.za/2026/03/09/10-000-new-labour-inspectors-may-cost-taxpayers-r10bn-over-three-years
by Dev_SACCAWU | Labour Market News
Global Business Solutions joint-CEO John Botha
The publication of the Labour Law Amendment Bill in Government Gazette No. 54220 on 26 February 2026 marks the most comprehensive review of South Africa’s employment legislation in more than a decade.
The Bill proposes amendments to the Labour Relations Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Employment Equity Act and National Minimum Wage Act following an extended NEDLAC negotiation process conducted between April 2022 and October 2024.
While significant consensus was achieved on institutional reforms affecting the Labour Court and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), several substantive provisions carry notable economic, compliance and governance implications that will now be tested during the public comment phase prior to Parliamentary consideration.
What Emerged from the NEDLAC Process
The NEDLAC negotiations resulted in several areas of consensus between organised business, organised labour and government. Among the agreed amendments is the introduction of an earnings threshold of R1.8-million per annum, limiting reinstatement as a remedy in non-automatic unfair dismissal disputes. Compensation caps linked to CPI adjustments were also incorporated.
The Bill further simplifies the statutory test for procedural fairness, aligning it with prevailing jurisprudence by requiring that an employee be afforded a fair and reasonable opportunity to respond.
Start-up businesses with fewer than 50 employees will benefit from a two-year exemption from extended bargaining council collective agreements. Amendments to section 189A rationalise large-scale retrenchment procedures, restoring the ability to challenge dismissals post-implementation and reducing procedural duplication. A 24-month validity cap on section 77 socio-economic protest certificates has also been introduced.
Taken together, these amendments reflect a negotiated recalibration of certain procedural and remedial mechanisms within the existing labour framework.
Provisions with Material Economic and Compliance Implications
Several proposed amendments carry significant economic and compliance implications.
Statutory severance pay is set to increase from one week to two weeks per completed year of service. For organisations engaged in periodic restructuring, this amendment may necessitate revised workforce cost modelling and financial planning assumptions.
The proposed extension of the definition of “employee,” through a new Schedule 11 to the Labour Relations Act, seeks to extend organisational and collective bargaining rights to certain non-standard and platform-based workers. This represents a potential structural shift in the regulation of emerging work models.
The cost and operational implications of large-scale reclassification remain uncertain and will likely require further interpretative guidance.
Proposed protections for “on call” workers under section 9B of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act introduce minimum pay guarantees and advance notice obligations. These provisions may affect sectors reliant on flexible staffing arrangements.
The amendment to the National Minimum Wage Act, following the Labour Appeal Court’s decision in the Quantum Foods matter, clarifies the exclusion of certain contractual bonuses from minimum wage calculations.
Proposed amendments to the Employment Equity Act concerning arbitrary wage differentiation further signal increased regulatory attention to pay equity compliance.
The Public Participation Phase
The public comment phase now underway constitutes a critical procedural step within the legislative process. Submissions received during this period may influence the refinement, amendment or reconsideration of contested provisions before the Bill is formally introduced in Parliament.
The Labour Law Amendment Bill now enters the formal public participation phase prior to Parliamentary deliberation. The extent and substance of stakeholder engagement during this period may shape the final legislative architecture governing South Africa’s employment relations framework.
Written by John Botha, Joint CEO of Global Business Solutions (GBS), a South African workplace and labour advisory firm specialising in employment law and workforce governance
Source: https://www.polity.org.za/article/labour-law-amendment-bill-2026-legislative-developments-and-economic-implications-2026-03-02
by Dev_SACCAWU | Labour Market News
Minister of employment and labour Nomakhosazana Meth. File photo (Freddy Mavunda/Business Day)
Meth says expansion aims to close enforcement gaps as only 2%-5% of SA workplaces are currently inspected
The department of employment and labour has estimated that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proposal to appoint 10,000 additional labour inspectors could cost about R10bn over the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), according to a written parliamentary reply.
The figures were disclosed in response to a question from MK Party MP Andile Nchabeleng to employment and labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth about the feasibility and cost implications of the plan announced during the state of the nation address on February 12.
In her reply to the National Assembly, Meth said the expansion of the inspectorate is intended to address longstanding gaps in labour inspection and enforcement around the country.
Administrative data collected by the inspectorate over nearly two decades shows only about 2%-5% of workplaces in South Africa have been covered through advocacy, inspections and enforcement activities.
Meth said the scale of the labour market far exceeds the current inspection capacity. She cited several indicators of the number of workplaces operating.
These include Stats SA’s Quarterly Employment Survey, which uses about 20,000 VAT-registered businesses in the formal sector, and the Commission for Employment Equity report, which recorded 29,269 designated employers that submitted employment equity reports in 2024.
Other estimates referenced by the department include about 4-million registered companies recorded by the South African Revenue Service and about 2.7-million small, medium and micro-enterprises estimated by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The department also referred to guidelines from the International Labour Organisation, which recommends a ratio of one labour inspector for every 10,000 workers in developing economies. South Africa currently has about 16.8-million employed people, excluding workers in the informal economy and some SMMEs, which further increases the scale of the inspection challenge.
Meth said appointing an additional 10,000 inspectors would “significantly improve the operational reach of the inspectorate and make an impact in the South African labour market”. The department said the increase would also help respond to growing demand for its services, including the regulation of undocumented migrant workers.
Financial estimates contained in the reply indicate that employing 10,000 inspectors would cost about R3.7bn a year in salaries and wages. Over the MTEF period, the total cost is expected to reach about R10bn.
The projected expenditure would cover basic salaries, leave pay and gratuities, performance-based allowances and bonuses, statutory contributions such as pension and medical aid, as well as tools of trade required by inspectors.
The department said funding for the initiative is expected to come from the National Treasury, which typically finances commitments announced by the president during the state of the nation address.
Meth also confirmed that a detailed project and implementation plan is still being developed. Once finalised, the framework will first be submitted internally for approval before being tabled. The department indicated that the implementation framework is expected to be completed by March 13.
Source: https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2026-03-09-r10bn-plan-to-hire-10000-labour-inspectors/
by Dev_SACCAWU | Labour Market News
Rishav Juglall (supplied)
Firm manufactures, supplies cleaning products
Rishav Juglall is the entrepreneur behind Rocky Brands, a business that has created 48 employment opportunities.
Based in Midrand, Rocky Brands manufactures and supplies high-quality cleaning products to retailers across SA.
In 2022, Juglall’s business was named Pick n Pay Business Supplier of the Year. And in 2023, his company secured R15,7-million in blended funding from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
The IDC, an entity of the trade, industry and competition department, drives job creation through industrialisation and supports businesses owned by black people, women and youth to build a more inclusive economy.
“The funding helped us to buy more equipment, and that enabled our production process to be mostly automated, saving us money and time and contributing to the well-being of our employees because they work less overtime to meet deadlines,” explained Juglall.
The investment also allowed Rocky Brands to upskill staff to operate the new machinery and warehouse equipment, while bulk stock purchases have reduced input costs.
Juglall, who holds a qualification in marketing and economics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, identified a gap in the market for affordable, quality cleaning products.
Inspired by his mother’s struggle to find reasonably priced products — including a cleaning agent for her glass-top stove — he launched the business 15 years ago.
Its main manufacturing plant operates from Riversands in Midrand, supported by distribution depots in Durban and Cape Town.
In 2011, when Juglall was just 22, he had a vision of transforming the cleaning products sector in SA.
“At the time, I could only find an Australian import, and it was expensive. I then found Weiman products on Amazon, and the reviews were very impressive. I reached out to the brand and sealed a deal to supply South African retail stores with Weiman products, and that’s how I started my business,” he said.
His company became the sole distributor for Weiman products in SA at the time, supplying major retailers.
The company began manufacturing approximately 90% of its products in-house from 2016.
“The shift to local production not only supports the South African economy but also gives us greater control over the quality and sustainability of our offerings,” Juglall said. “We were one of the first black-owned businesses in SA to supply Woolworths with cleaning products from 2023.”
Today, Rocky Brands manufactures and delivers cleaning brands including Goo Gone, Orange, Wright’s, Weiman, Earth Friendly, Magic Eraser and Clean Start. The company supplies Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Spar, Checkers, Bidvest Prestige, Supercare and House & Home, among others. — GCIS‘s Vuk’uzenzele
Source: https://www.sowetan.co.za/news/2026-03-10-rocky-brands-cleans-up-as-it-drives-job-creation/#google_vignette
