Africa-Press – South-Africa. As the government of national unity (GNU) marked its first anniversary on June 14, ActionSA has poured cold water on its progress in office, saying they are nowhere near delivering on promises they made to the electorate.
In fact, they have awarded the GNU an F on their report card in their self-generated GNU tracker, saying the grand coalition is a “complete failure”, adding that they have had no meaningful performance, and their obligations have remained entirely unmet, with a collapse in delivery and accountability.
The party’s parliamentary leader Atholl Trollip said this outcome rubber-stamps their decision not to join the governing coalition, as they were concerned about playing a “constructive role” in the opposition.
Taking a swipe at the MK Party and the EFF, Trollip said they made this decision because with “regressive forces in the opposition benches of parliament, who played key roles in robbing the state of hundreds of millions during the state capture era, along with the radical, violence-inducing rhetoric that was recently put on display for the whole world, we recognised that ActionSA’s most effective role was in opposition”.
With a six-seater caucus in parliament, the party vowed to hold the executive to account, scrutinise the delivery of services and monitor how public funds are spent.
“To do this, ActionSA in parliament developed our GNU Performance Tracker, a comprehensive index designed to monitor and hold accountable the GNU. Drawing on data from sources such as Stats SA and official parliamentary replies, the tracker benchmarks performance against government targets, international best practice and ActionSA policy positions.”
Trollip’s party believes their mechanism empowers the public to see clearly where the GNU is succeeding and where it is failing.
“This is our concrete contribution, as principled, constructive opposition, to enhancing transparency, accountability and public participation.
“Based on objective data collated across six thematic areas — ethical leadership and public service, the economy, infrastructure, basic services, education and crime — we have extracted key indicators from our ongoing tracking.”
The party has flagged the GNU’s bloated cabinet as one of its glaring failures, noting that the cabinet expanded from 30 to 32 ministers, as well as 36 to 42 deputies.
Trollip has criticised that the salaries, staff and related perks for newly appointed ministers and deputies has increased the cabinet’s budget by almost R250m each year. “This is an outrageous financial burden placed on already overburdened taxpayers. Ministers are public servants, not royalty, and must live as such.
“The party has also been a watchdog over the executive’s travel spend, saying this is an effort to lift the lid on excessive and wasteful expenditure.”
However, they have been disappointed at the “reliance on costly and extravagant travel arrangements despite the mounting daily challenges faced by ordinary South Africans”.
“Under the guise of official duties, taxpayer money is being drained to fund what appears to be lavish travel expenditure. Lavish spending has defined ministers’ first year in office, which has amounted to R204m spent on executive travel.”
This figure was established through parliamentary questions. However, ActionSA insists this figure is incomplete.
“Two ministers — land reform and rural development, and social development — have failed to respond more than six months after the question was submitted. Two others — women, youth and people with disabilities, and the presidency — either failed to disclose any amount or deflected accountability altogether. Most replies received only cover the first six months in office.”
On economic growth, ActionSA has highlighted how the expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged job seekers, has increased from 42.1% to 43.1%.
“According to the latest employment figures, nearly 300,000 people lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2025 alone. There are now 8.23-million unemployed South Africans, with a further 3.5-million so discouraged that they’ve given up even trying to find work. That is 12-million people without opportunity, without support and without hope.”
The party believes the GNU has not done much to shift the needle when it comes to improving basic service delivery either.
“As shown in Stats SA’s latest general household survey, the number of households without access to basic sanitation — those using bucket toilets, unimproved pit latrines, or lacking any toilet at all — has shown no improvement over the short- or medium-term, with one out of every six households in South Africa without access to basic sanitation, which not only fails global standards, but our own norms and standards for sanitation.”
The party has also flagged the increasingly unchecked movement of undocumented individuals across borders, saying it complicates effective service delivery, particularly in communities already struggling with inadequate infrastructure and high unemployment.
ActionSA, which campaigned visibly on the illegal immigration crisis, says it analysed the total annual cost of deporting undocumented foreign nationals and illegal immigrants as a measure to detect whether the GNU was making inroads on the matter. The cost has reportedly risen sharply from R17.3m in the 2022/23 financial year to R73m in 2024/25.
Trollip says the skyrocketing increase reflects the mounting strain placed on the department of home affairs and the South African taxpayer due to continued failures in securing borders and enforcing immigration laws.
“By investing in secure and efficient border management systems, the country can reduce the influx of illegal immigrants, thereby decreasing the cost of deportations. These savings can then be redirected towards initiatives that restore the dignity of South African citizens, such as improving access to housing, education and health-care services.”
In light of their assessment, Herman Mashaba’s party has declared that the GNU has failed to deliver meaningful reform on every metric considered.
“The consequence of this failure is a country caught in the grip of stagnation and regression, rather than progress, growth and measurable improvement. The data continues to tell a sobering story that over the past 12 months, this government has paraded itself as a project of renewal, while the facts point to an administration that has mastered the art of governance through a thin veil of PR.”
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