Grassroots organisations from across South Africa are set to gather at St George’s Cathedral from 23 to 25 February for the People’s Assembly on Unemployment, Austerity and the Fight for Decent Work. Convened by the Assembly of the Unemployed and Cry of the Xcluded, the event precedes a national budget expected to deepen austerity measures. It contrasts with an upcoming elite conference on the same topic hosted by News24 and opened by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The People’s Assembly aims to shift discussions on unemployment from elite boardrooms to the experiences of those affected, as outlined in an op-ed by members of the Assembly of the Unemployed and Cry of the Xcluded. South Africa faces an official unemployment rate at crisis levels, with the expanded rate exceeding 40%, including discouraged work seekers. This situation stems from decades of liberalisation, privatisation, and neoliberal policies that have reduced the economy's productive capacity, according to the piece.
Critics in the op-ed challenge common explanations like skills mismatches or rigid labour laws, noting that qualified graduates and those with incomplete education alike struggle to find jobs, while wages remain low and protections poorly enforced. Trade and financial liberalisation has harmed local industries, privatisation has limited state development roles, and austerity has cut public jobs and social spending.
The assembly will explore impacts such as widened inequality, community fractures, and despair, with a focus on gender dimensions. Women often bear the brunt through unpaid care work, stretched budgets, and heightened risks of gender-based violence amid economic stress. Broader effects include increased migration, desperation-driven crime, and psychological trauma, which also strain democracy by excluding many from economic participation.
Proposed alternatives include state-led reindustrialisation, expanded public employment, and rejecting austerity that favours ratings agencies over residents. The op-ed calls for confronting corruption as part of crony capitalism and uniting movements against budget cuts and privatisation. Authors Vuyokazi Made, Motsi Khokhoma, and Siyabulela Mama emphasise that solutions must involve those most impacted, stating, 'decent work will not be delivered by market fundamentalism. It will be won through organised struggle, democratic planning and a decisive shift in whose voices matter.'
