Employment & labour minister Nomakhosazana Meth on Thursday briefed parliament on the allocation of the R4.153bn her department got from the fiscus for the 2025/26 financial year.
She told MPs during her department’s budget vote that R1.5bn had been set aside for wages.
A huge chunk of the allocation to the department, R1.738bn, was earmarked for transfers and subsidies to support partnerships with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, the National Economic Development and Labour Council, Productivity SA, and civil society actors involved in employment activation, she said.
Meth said R694.789m would be used for goods and services; and R121m for capital assets such as financing digital infrastructure upgrades and modernisation of labour centres and satellite offices.
“Major social protection interventions will be delivered through the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Compensation Fund. In 2025/26, the UIF will manage R38.4bn, with R19.02bn for direct benefits,” Meth said.
“Over R10.98bn is allocated to labour activation programmes (LAPs), targeting 240,000 placements this year and 690,000 over the medium term, half of which are reserved for youth, women, and persons with disabilities.”
“An additional R1.4bn is allocated to the TERS [temporary employment relief] scheme to protect jobs in distressed companies, while R55m will fund the business turnaround programme to assist 80 companies and save 3,750 jobs.”
To boost efficiency, R1.13bn is committed to digital transformation, including biometric verification and integrated claims systems. “Seventeen mobile buses will extend UIF access to less serviced areas”.
“The Compensation Fund is allocated R1.6bn (pensioners and injured workers), R5bn for medical claims and R1.85bn for capacity building — supporting digitisation, medical staffing in provinces and outreach to vulnerable workers.”
National priorities
The minister hailed the budget as aligned with the national priorities outlined in the medium-term development plan 2024—29 under the government of national unity.
She said the formulation of the National Employment Policy (NEP) was at “advanced stages”.
“This policy sets out a co-ordinating framework to align various policy instruments that promote employment growth. The NEP calls for a paradigm shift towards better policy co-ordination that enhances firm productivity and job absorption capacity, supported by macroeconomic, industrial and skills development policies.”
This as the department has set itself a target of creating 2-million jobs by 2030.
“As of the first quarter of 2025, the official unemployment rate stood at 32.9%, with youth unemployment at an alarming 62.4%. These figures speak to the urgency of placing employment at the heart of national development.”
However, ActionSA MP Alan Beesley said the party rejected the budget vote.
“The expanded unemployment rate has worsened, climbing from 42.6% to 43.1%. According to the latest figures, nearly 300,000 people lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2025 alone. That means 5,000 South Africans will return home today without jobs, another 5,000 tomorrow and the same every working day that follows,” Beesley said.
“There are now 8.23-million unemployed South Africans, with an additional 3.5-million so discouraged that they’ve given up even trying to find work. That’s nearly 12-million people left without opportunity, without support and without hope.
“But these are not just statistics. These are the lived experiences of millions of South Africans — real people, suffering under a ministry that has turned its back on them.
“It is not just the absence of work — it is a suffocating darkness that consumes hope, dignity and self-worth. A darkness caused by a failing government and a failing ministry.”
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