ActionSA has intensified its pressure on the Government of National Unity (GNU) to immediately fire three key economic Ministers following the latest GDP and employment data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Tuesday.

ActionSA called the statistics a “devastating double blow” of "microscopic" economic growth and "massive" job losses for the first quarter of 2026.

According to Stats SA, South Africa’s economy expanded by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2026, slightly up from the 0.4% recorded in the final quarter of 2025.

But the country shed 345 000 jobs during the same three-month period.

As a result, ActionSA wants the Ministers of Employment and Labour; Trade, Industry and Competition; and Small Business Development on the chopping block.

ActionSA MP Alan Beesley says the figures prove that the GNU is failing to address South Africa's crises of economic stagnation and growing unemployment.

"These figures should surprise nobody. South Africa remains trapped in a cycle of low growth, declining investment, and persistently high unemployment because government lacks both urgency and a credible plan to reverse these trends," Beesley says.

He pits South Africa against comparable emerging market economies, which he says consistently post annual growth rates between 3% and 4%. By contrast, South Africa managed just 0.6% growth in 2024 and 1.1% in 2025.

ActionSA says it rejects attempts by government to blame international headwinds for the country's financial woes.

"The GNU cannot continue blaming external factors such as global trade uncertainty or commodity prices for an economic crisis that is overwhelmingly the result of domestic policy failures and decades of government corruption and inaction," Beesley asserts.

While Stats SA reported some positive movement – driven primarily by a 0.9% boost in the finance, real estate, and business services industry – ActionSA believes that the broader economic foundation is crumbling, citing the “accelerating deindustrialisation” of the country.

The manufacturing sector contracted by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2026, compounding a 0.6% shrinkage at the end of 2025.

This decline is matched by a decimated construction industry, which plummeted by 5.4% in 2024 and another 4.4% in 2025.

Beesley acknowledges that the government’s recently adopted Revised Industrial Development Strategy correctly identifies the need for affordable electricity, efficient ports, functioning rail networks, and modern telecommunications. However, he notes that listing problems is not the same as solving them.

"The reality is that South Africa's deindustrialisation is no longer merely continuing; it is accelerating under the GNU," Beesley warns, adding that current growth levels cannot absorb new school leavers and graduates into the market and deal with the unemployment rate.