Our message to the President ahead of SONA

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) argues that modest economic improvements in South Africa during 2025 provide a critical window for structural transformation. While GDP and network industries like energy and logistics have stabilized, the IEJ warns that these gains have not translated into significant job creation, poverty reduction, or food security, urging President Ramaphosa to move beyond marginal reforms toward a state-led developmental macroeconomic framework.

• South Africa's economy showed modest growth in 2025, with a projected GDP expansion of 1.2%, though this remains insufficient to significantly reduce unemployment. Growth was primarily driven by the mining, agriculture, trade, and finance sectors, despite threats from the United States regarding AGOA and potential 30% trade tariffs.
• Improvements in state-owned network industries—specifically energy, freight rail, and ports—have supported the economy. Most of the country avoided loadshedding for much of 2025 due to better maintenance and capacity, and Transnet reported a 4.4% increase in rail volume to 81.4 metric tons in the six months ending September 2025.
• The labor market remains in crisis despite GDP resilience. By September 2025, the official unemployment rate was 31.9% (over 8 million people), while the expanded unemployment rate reached 42.4% (12.5 million people). Additionally, 40% to 45% of young people are categorized as not in employment, education, or training (NEET).
• Investment levels are stagnating and fall short of targets. In 2025, the investment rate dropped below 15%, which is significantly lower than the 20% to 25% required for sustained growth. The planned R1 trillion in medium-term infrastructure spending is far below the R800 billion annual requirement to meet National Development Plan (NDP) targets.
• Poverty and food insecurity have worsened. Two-thirds of the population (66.7%) now live above the upper-bound poverty line, increasing to 40.8 million people in 2023. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of severely food-insecure people rose by 2.8 million to a total of 8 million.
• Social grants are insufficient to eradicate hunger. The child support grant of R560 is below the R948.18 required for a basic nutritious diet, and the SRD grant (R370) is less than 44% of the food poverty line. The basic income support (BIS) policy is delayed and not expected to return to Cabinet until March 2027.
• The IEJ proposes a new developmental macroeconomic framework to replace the current regulator-only state role. This includes a dual policy rate regime from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to provide lower-priced credit for developmental investment and the recapitalization of the DBSA, IDC, and public banks.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2026). Our message to the President ahead of SONA. https://iej.org.za/press-room/statements/statement-our-message-to-the-president-ahead-of-sona/

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. Our message to the President ahead of SONA. 2026. https://iej.org.za/press-room/statements/statement-our-message-to-the-president-ahead-of-sona/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=Our message to the President ahead of SONA |date=9 February 2026 |url=https://iej.org.za/press-room/statements/statement-our-message-to-the-president-ahead-of-sona/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{instituteforeconomicjustice2026our, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{Our message to the President ahead of SONA}}, publisher = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2026}, month = feb, url = {https://iej.org.za/press-room/statements/statement-our-message-to-the-president-ahead-of-sona/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }