ActionSA on Monday wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa requesting that he dismiss Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth, citing what it calls her failure in arresting the deepening unemployment crisis.

ActionSA MP Alan Beesley pointed to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, in which the official unemployment rate rose to 32.9%, up from 31.9% the previous quarter.

He said a staggering 8.2-million South Africans are now unemployed, with an additional 3.5-million discouraged work-seekers.

“291 000 jobs were lost in the first quarter alone – the first such Q1 contraction since 2021. This equates to more than 24 000 jobs lost each week, and almost 5 000 each workday,” he explained.

Beesley noted that nearly a year into Meth’s tenure, she had not demonstrated the “urgency, capacity or leadership” required to respond to the economic and social emergency.

He said in November 2024, ActionSA asked Meth whether she would resign should the country’s distressing unemployment figures continue to rise, noting that her response was “blunt and unapologetic”.

Beesley explained that this laid bare a disturbing indifference to the suffering of millions of South Africans.

“…it is an attitude that reflects the posture of an uncaring government that has grown comfortable with failure while ordinary citizens pay the price,” he said.

He stated that South Africa’s working-age population could not afford further stagnation under “ineffective stewardship”.

He claimed poor performance management for Government of National Unity Ministers, which he said had created a culture where failure carries zero consequence.

“In any functional democracy, such dismal figures amid worsening socioeconomic conditions would compel a Minister to take responsibility and step down. Sadly, this standard of accountability is sorely lacking in South Africa and glaringly absent in the Ramaphosa-led administrations,” he stated.