The Conference of the Left: Press Briefing, 31/05/2026 - Birchwood Hotel

South Africa is in deep structural crisis. Inequality is widening, real wages are falling, household debt is rising, and access to food, energy, transport, and housing grows more precarious each year. The democratic gains of 1994 were real and must be defended — but without transforming ownership and productive capacity they remain vulnerable. Capital did not accept defeat in 1994; it adjusted and reasserted dominance. Economic policy is now shaped by financial capital, not social need. Meanwhile, reactionary forces exploit mass insecurity while protecting the very system causing it. Neither neoliberalism nor reaction offers a way out. Only organised confrontation with the structures of economic power — and the rebuilding of a capable Left — can resolve this crisis.