A year into South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU), ActionSA has given the coalition government a ‘failed’ grade, saying it reflects, what is believes, is the coalition’s poor performance and a missed opportunity to chart a new course for the country.

The GNU was formed following the May 2024 elections, which saw the African National Congress (ANC) lose its electoral support for the first time since the advent of South Africa’s democracy.

ActionSA on Tuesday presented its inaugural one-year review of the GNU, with a comprehensive grading of the GNU’s performance over the past 12 months.

ActionSA claims that the GNU has “failed to deliver meaningful reform”.

“The consequence of this failure is a country caught in the grip of stagnation and regression, rather than progress, growth and measurable improvement,” explained ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip.

Trollip described the GNU’s Cabinet, which he said increased the Cabinet’s budget by almost R250-million each year, as an outrageous financial burden placed on already overburdened taxpayers.

“Lavish spending has defined Ministers’ first year in office. Based on replies received to date, R204-million has been spent on executive travel. However, this figure is incomplete. Two Ministers – Land Reform and Rural Development, and Social Development – have failed to respond more than six months after the question was submitted. Two others – Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, and the Presidency – either failed to disclose any amount or deflected accountability altogether, with one referring the matter to the Standing Committee on Intelligence.

“Most replies received only cover the first six months in office. Taking these omissions into account, ActionSA conservatively estimates that executive travel in the GNU’s first year cost taxpayers between R350-million and R400-million,” he said.

He pointed out that under a GNU coalition South Africa’s expanded unemployment rate increased from 42.6% to 43.1%. ActionSA gave the GNU an ‘F’ in this metric.

Trollip highlighted that according to the latest employment figures, nearly 300 000 people lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2025 alone.

“…that means today, 5 000 South Africans will go home and tell their families they’ve lost their jobs, another 5 000 tomorrow and every working day after that. There are now 8.23-million unemployed South Africans, with a further 3.5-million so discouraged that they’ve given up even trying to find work. That is 12-million people without opportunity, without support, and without hope,” he said.

He said when evaluating the GNU, the metric should show what government had done to create jobs, adding that only sustained economic growth of at least 3% to 4% would lift South Africans out of unemployment.

“The painful truth is that in the GNU’s first year, annual growth has not breached the 1% ceiling, less than population growth. Even for the current financial year, National Treasury projects an overly optimistic, but still inadequate, growth rate of 1.4%. As long as growth remains this low, the heartbreak of joblessness will persist,” Trollip said.

He attributed the stagnation to “a government bereft of bold, pragmatic ideas and one that is openly at war with itself”.

He claimed that parties in the GNU spent more time taking each other to court than crafting meaningful reforms.

One year since its formation, not a single new economic policy had been introduced, he said.

Trollip highlighted that while isolated pockets of improvement may be cited in certain areas, it had yielded little to no “tangible impact” on the prevailing socioeconomic conditions in the country.

“Every day, ordinary South Africans bear witness to the reality that life has not improved. Over the past week, as we engaged with people across the country, their lived experiences told a powerful and consistent story. From rural villages to urban centres, from Cape Town to Limpopo, from students to small business owners, the message was clear. The GNU has failed to meet the expectations of the people and has left behind a deep sense of disappointment,” he added.

And while there was some optimism to be drawn from the idea of political cooperation across party lines within the GNU, the lived reality remained that cooperation without reform was ultimately meaningless, Trollip stated.

He said South Africa continued to be plagued by deep-rooted governance failures.