Latest budget benefits the better-off, squeezes the poor

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) criticizes the 2026 South African National Budget for maintaining austerity measures, failing to address chronic poverty and unemployment, and prioritizing tax relief for higher-income earners over essential public services and social protection.

• The 2026 National Budget continues a trend of austerity by implementing further budget cuts to non-interest spending, reducing it by R5.2 billion in 2026/27 and R14.2 billion in 2027/28 compared to the 2025 budget.
• Economic growth projections are deemed insufficient to meet the needs of the population and labor force, with growth expected to average 1.8% and reach 2% by 2028, which the IEJ argues keeps the country in a sub-3% growth trajectory.
• Spending on essential public services is declining in real terms: education spending per learner is dropping by an average of 0.33% over the medium term, and healthcare spending per public service user fell from R4,108 in 2019/20 to R4,028 in 2026/27.
• Social protection is contracting by 0.33% over three years due to the lack of funding and increases for the Covid-19 SRD grant. Additionally, SASSA's new biometric verification is projected to save R3 billion by cancelling or rejecting approximately 0.5 million grants.
• The budget prioritizes tax relief for the wealthy and businesses over pro-poor spending, including the withdrawal of a R20 billion tax increase committed to in the 2025 budget and the maintenance of medical aid tax credits estimated at R37 billion in 2023/24.
• The 2026 Gender Budget Statement (GBS) is criticized for being relegated to a budget annexure, replacing the 'Women’s Economic Empowerment' framework with the vaguer 'Economic Empowerment', and failing to address structural causes of female-headed household food insecurity.
• The debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to peak at 78.9%, higher than the 77.3% anticipated in the 2025 National Budget, due to slower than expected nominal GDP growth.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2026). Latest budget benefits the better-off, squeezes the poor. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Budget-2026-Statement-updated.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. Latest budget benefits the better-off, squeezes the poor. 2026. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Budget-2026-Statement-updated.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=Latest budget benefits the better-off, squeezes the poor |date=26 February 2026 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Budget-2026-Statement-updated.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{instituteforeconomicjustice2026latest, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{Latest budget benefits the better-off, squeezes the poor}}, publisher = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2026}, month = feb, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/IEJ-Budget-2026-Statement-updated.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }