SAFTU members and workers mark May Day 2026 all over the country, as the federation called for jobs, an end to austerity measures, and unity between employed and unemployed workers.
Image: Mike Hutchings / File
As workers across South Africa marked Workers’ Day, a public holiday honouring the struggles and gains of the labour movement, with marches, rallies, and renewed calls for economic justice, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) used its Workers’ Day rally in Langa to deliver a fiery message on unemployment, poverty, and collapsing public services.
A statement delivered to members at the Langa, Cape Town, gathering on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the country was facing a deepening crisis that could no longer be ignored.
"This May Day, the South African working class confronts a deep and intensifying social and economic crisis," the federation said in the address on Friday.
"May Day is a day of struggle. It is a day to organise, unite, and fight."
The federation’s central rallying call for 2026 was: "Unite employed and unemployed workers".
SAFTU told workers and community members that South Africa was enduring a "job loss bloodbath", with retrenchments and instability spreading across steel, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and retail-linked industries.
The federation highlighted the crisis at ArcelorMittal South Africa, warning that thousands of jobs remained under threat, while the collapse of Daybreak Foods had placed many workers at risk.
"We have seen factories close while companies retain warehouse operations, turning South Africa into an import-dependent economy," the statement read to supporters.
SAFTU called for an immediate halt to retrenchments, state intervention to rebuild strategic industries, and a coherent industrial strategy.
The federation also used the Langa platform to highlight hunger and inequality, saying between 17 million and 20 million people skip meals daily, while thousands of children die each year from malnutrition-related causes.
"At the same time, edible food is destroyed daily by corporations while millions go hungry," members were told.
SAFTU demanded food price interventions, expanded social protection, and a living wage.
Turning to local government, the federation said many municipalities were failing communities through unreliable water, sanitation, electricity, and infrastructure services.
“This is a failure of governance, not workers,” the statement said.
It called for the insourcing of workers, including the absorption of Expanded Public Works Programme employees, as well as infrastructure investment and accountability for corruption.
SAFTU said South Africa’s housing backlog of an estimated 3.7 million units continued to force workers into informal settlements, unsafe living conditions, and costly commutes far from places of employment.
On education and healthcare, the federation said overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, underfunded universities, and precarious community health workers were reproducing inequality.
It called for increased funding, the filling of teaching vacancies, and the permanent absorption of community health workers and caregivers.
The federation also linked violent crime and gender-based violence to worsening social distress.
"This reflects a deep social breakdown driven by poverty and inequality."
SAFTU renewed calls for a national strategy against gender-based violence, stronger policing, and a more effective justice system.
Rejecting austerity measures, the federation said spending cuts had worsened inequality and weakened the state.
"Austerity has deepened inequality," it said, calling instead for "public investment in jobs and services" and "a people-centred economy".
The address ended with a call for unity among workers, unemployed people, and communities gathered in Langa.
"The working class cannot afford division," the federation said.
lilita.gcwabe@inl.co.za