Staff Reporter

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has launched an assault on the Government of National Unity (GNU), branding the coalition a failure that is actively suffocating the economy, excluding the black majority, and entrenching mass poverty.

Speaking at a media briefing, Malema dismissed the GNU’s economic strategy as nothing more than a dangerous continuation of apartheid-era policies, designed to protect the privileged few at the expense of the dispossessed.

Malema hammered the GNU with stark economic data, arguing that its policies are a deliberate outcome leading to national collapse.

He emphasized that more than 11 million South Africans are jobless, calling this mass unemployment a direct result of a political arrangement designed to protect a colonial economic architecture.

He also cited the dismal 0.5% economic growth across all three quarters of 2025 as proof of the government’s total failure to stimulate growth or create jobs.

“Under the illusion of renewal, the GNU reaffirms the same neoliberal commitments that have suffocated our country for a decade,” Malema.

He accused the government of choosing austerity over industrialisation and privatisation over developmental governance.

Malema criticised the lack of any serious industrial policy or state-driven initiatives, condemning the government for passively waiting for foreign investors who have little interest in truly industrialising the country.

“The GNU governs as though the working class is disposable,” Malema stated, warning that workers face a cruel choice between wages that guarantee poverty and indefinite unemployment.