Zabalaza for Socialism (ZASO) condemns the 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) as a ruthless extension of neoliberal austerity and pro-business restructuring. What the government and Treasury call “structural reform” is in reality a full-scale offensive against workers and the poor.

The MTBPS entrenches the conservative Growth and Inclusion (GAIN) framework — a policy designed to please financial markets and the business elite. It sets a new inflation target of 3%, introduces a fiscal anchor aimed at achieving a budget surplus, and commits to using additional tax revenue to pay down debt rather than to address unemployment, poverty, or collapsing public services.

This represents the most extreme fiscal conservatism since 1994. Instead of rebuilding the state and creating jobs, government is shrinking expenditure and tightening monetary policy — policies that will suppress growth, drive down wages, and deepen social misery.

The MTBPS also confirms the handing over of key sectors to private capital through so-called public–private partnerships (PPPs). Treasury boasts that “Government, working with the World Bank, has developed a credit guarantee vehicle to de-risk private investment in critical infrastructure.” This means public money and guarantees for corporate profit — while the working class bears the risks.

ZASO warns that this combination of austerity, privatisation, and financial orthodoxy signals a deepening class war from above. The Government of National Unity has abandoned any pretense of developmentalism, fully embracing the neoliberal dogma of the IMF and World Bank.

In the face of this assault, ZASO calls for a broad, united front of trade unions, community movements, and socialist organisations to resist austerity and defend public services. Despite our ideological and tactical differences, unity in action is essential. We must take the truth of this budget to the people, expose what is being done in their name, and build resistance from below.