The workshop was opened by NUPSAW General Secretary Solly Malema, who emphasized the need for labour unity and the urgency of a coordinated response to growing budget cuts, privatisation, and regressive taxation. “The government’s decision to raise VAT while freezing public wages and leaving 200,000 posts unfilled, has eroded the social wage and public confidence.” said Malema.

Speakers including economist Seeraj Mohamed and analyst Busi Sibeko highlighted the structural inequalities embedded in South Africa’s neoliberal economic framework. They demonstrated how austerity deepens poverty, disproportionately impacts women, and undermines public investment, even as it fails to achieve its stated goals of debt reduction or growth. Participants described the 2025 budget as “austerity by stealth” and rejected the myth of a “bloated public sector,” pointing instead to vacancies, declining service quality, and overworked, underpaid staff.

Sessions examined the budget’s impact on key sectors. Thoko Madonko (SCIS) highlighted the neglect of the care economy, where underinvestment disproportionately burdens women. PSI Deputy General Secretary David Boys sounded the alarm on public-private partnerships and privatisation, urging unions to use early warning systems and build tax justice campaigns to resist these threats.

Dick Forslund of AIDC exposed how austerity measures have led to school closures, public service understaffing, and wage disparities. He explained, ““If we put unemployed people to work in the public sector, the economy grows—because public sector wages are part of GDP, just like in the private sector. Cutting jobs and freezing posts isn’t just bad for workers; it’s bad for the country.”

A critical session on debt, led by AIDC’s Aliya Chikte, debunked the narrative that South Africa is in a debt crisis. Instead, participants emphasized that the crisis lies in mass unemployment, inequality, and underinvestment. Alternatives were proposed, including progressive taxation, ending illicit financial flows, and mobilizing public resources such as GEPF surpluses responsibly, to fund public services and a developmental state.

These alternatives were explored in more depth on the final day. In his session “If we say no to a VAT increase, what are we saying yes to?”, AIDC’s Jaco Oelofsen highlighted that SARS estimates over R800 billion in uncollected tax. He outlined progressive options such as wealth taxes, reversing corporate tax cuts, and closing loopholes used by corporations to avoid paying their fair share. Jaco also emphasized the need to modernize SARS, reintroduce capital controls, and reframe tax justice as a tool to build a fair and functioning public sector.

Following this, Chloe van Biljon of AIDC addressed the potential of using the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) surpluses to invest in infrastructure and public services. With the GEPF overfunded and generating R60 billion in annual surpluses, Chloe argued that worker pensions can be a powerful resource for progressive investment, if managed transparently and democratically. “This is not about plugging holes,” she warned, “but about directing public wealth toward public good.”

A strong theme throughout the workshop was the need for political clarity, movement building, and unity across unions and communities. PSI Regional Secretary Daniel Oberko captured this urgency: “How do we establish a set of actions that can commit each of us to a task that we can implement? This workshop must not end with talk—it must spark collective action.”

Participants committed to forming an Anti-Austerity Working Group to build internal education, coordinate mobilisation, and develop a bold public sector-led alternative. As Zwelinzima Vavi (SAFTU) put it, “Austerity is class war. It is time we fought back together.” This sentiment was supported by Riefdah Ajam, General Secretary of FEDUSA, during the workshop, who said  “Austerity is a declaration of war on the working class and the most marginalised. It has done nothing but fail this country,crippling social services, deepening inequality, and leaving public servants demoralised.”

In the face of deepening neoliberalism, the PSI-AIDC workshop marked a significant step in reclaiming labour’s voice and reimagining the public sector as the cornerstone of a just and equitable society.