MMAWUSA CONDEMNS DEEPENING UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS: CAPITALISM IS FAILING THE WORKING CLASS
The Metal Mining and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (MMAWUSA) condemns the latest unemployment statistics released by Statistics South Africa for the first quarter of 2025. With the official unemployment rate at a shocking 32.9% and over 8.2 million people jobless, this crisis is not a tragedy—it is the predictable outcome of a capitalist system that thrives on inequality, exploitation, and mass unemployment.
This crisis is not new, nor is it accidental. It is the result of a failed neoliberal agenda that continues to enrich a few elites while the working class is pushed deeper into poverty. The ruling class and their capitalist backers are waging economic war against the poor and working people of this country.
The provincial numbers expose the rot even further. While minimal gains were recorded in the Western Cape (49,000), Gauteng (9,000), and Free State (4,000), job bloodbaths are ravaging KwaZulu-Natal (104,000 lost), Eastern Cape (83,000), North West (57,000), Limpopo (55,000), Mpumalanga (43,000), and Northern Cape (12,000). These figures reflect a systemic assault on working-class provinces—especially those with extractive industries—where economic exploitation goes hand-in-hand with joblessness and underdevelopment.
The situation in the North West province is especially disgraceful. How can a province rich in mineral wealth top the unemployment charts? It is an indictment of mining corporations and government collusion. Mining companies rake in billions from our land but refuse to employ local people, leaving behind devastated communities. This is economic looting—plain and simple.
MMAWUSA declares: the mining sector must not only be held accountable—it must be transformed. The minerals under our soil belong to the people, not to a handful of shareholders. We demand a mining industry that serves the people, not profit.
We are witnessing a ruthless wave of retrenchments, mechanization without a just transition, union-busting tactics, and the destruction of secure jobs. This is corporate terrorism. Workers are not machines. They are human beings with families, responsibilities, and rights.
MMAWUSA demands:
- A total moratorium on retrenchments in mining and manufacturing.
- Enforced local hiring laws in mining areas—jobs must go to those who live where wealth is extracted.
- Immediate implementation and enforcement of social and labour plans, with community oversight.
- Radical land and mineral resource redistribution.
- Massive state-led investment in mineworker upskilling, beneficiation, and industrialization under democratic worker control.
To the mining bosses: your profits are soaked in the suffering of our people. To the government: enough empty promises—we want action now. If this system won’t provide decent jobs and dignity for all, then the system must fall.
MMAWUSA stands shoulder to shoulder with the unemployed, the retrenched, and the precarious. The fight for jobs is the fight for justice. We will organize, mobilize, and resist until every worker is treated with dignity and every community reclaims its right to live and thrive.
Issued by MMAWUSA