ANC NEC meeting to focus on economy and jobs: Mbalula

African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula says the party’s upcoming National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting will focus on ways of growing the economy and job creation.

Mbalula’s comments come as the country’s unemployment rate increased to 32.9 percent in the first quarter of 2025.

Mbalula was speaking to the media in Sedibeng, Gauteng after delivering the Duma Nokwe Memorial address.

Mbalula says next week’s budget by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana should be pro-poor and address South Africa’s unemployment crisis.

“What we supported as the ANC, was a budget that is pro-growth, and that addressed unemployment, and that is also pro-poor. Pro-poor in the sense that it seeks to intervene and address what is in the ANC manifesto of addressing the question of social spending. But over and above that, we need to respond to the challenges that are hampering growth, but at the same time that leads to employment creation in our country,”

 Video: Duma Nokwe Memorial Lecture