COSATU expects SONA to address unemployment, crime, and corruption

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) says it expects President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) to table solutions to the issues of unemployment, poverty, inequality, crime, and corruption.

Ramaphosa will deliver the SONA on Thursday evening at the Cape Town City Hall.

The union says it also expects to see consistent progress in the growth of the economy.

COSATU’s Parliamentary Coordinator Matthew Parks says they expect to see the economic growth moving from 1% to at least 3% over the next two years.

“We don’t think we can continue to normalise an economy stumbling at 1% as we’ve done for the last two decades. Nor should we normalise the 42% unemployment rate, that is a ticking time bomb. And we are too seriously disgruntled about basically three things, about fixing the state, growing the economy and giving relief to the poor and unemployed.”

“I think for us, fixing the state is about investing in public services, making sure that there are home affairs, there’s schools, the police can deliver their services to the society.”

PODCAST | SONA expectations unpacked:

#COSATU expects @PresidencyZA @GovernmentZA @ParliamentofRSA to fundamentally respond to the cries of the working-class communities and table solutions to unemployment,poverty, inequality, endemic crime and corruption @MorningLiveSABC #SONA2026 @SakinaKamwendo pic.twitter.com/JcEKoqA14h

— @COSATU Today (@_cosatu) February 12, 2026