Workers’ Day 2025: respect labour by delivering services
Statement by Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP, UDM Deputy President and Leader in Parliament
On this Workers’ Day, 1 May 2025, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) pays tribute to all South Africans whose labour builds and sustains our country; from farmworkers and factory hands to nurses, teachers, cleaners, drivers, and every hand that turns the wheels of our economy.
While this day is traditionally associated with fair wages and workplace rights, we believe it is time to also speak plainly about another injustice: the disrespect of workers through poor service delivery.
Working people pay their taxes. They make financial sacrifices. Yet far too many are forced to queue at broken clinics, drink unsafe water, live with load shedding, and send their children to overcrowded schools.
When a government fails to deliver the basic services that citizens pay for, it insults the dignity of their labour.
This is especially true at the local government level, where service delivery is closest to the people. Too many municipalities are riddled with financial mismanagement, cadre deployment, and basic incompetence. Potholes, uncollected waste, sewage spills and dry taps have become the norm for millions of workers, even as they continue to contribute to the local economy. Municipalities must stop being a source of frustration and start being centres of excellence and delivery.
We must expand the meaning of workers’ rights to include the right to functioning public services, because decent work does not end at the payslip, it continues into a life lived with dignity, health, safety and opportunity.
The UDM calls on government at all levels to honour workers not just with words, but with action: by fixing what is broken, uprooting corruption, and making every cent of public money count.
Let us build a South Africa where workers are not just celebrated once a year, but respected every day through competent, clean governance.
Happy Workers’ Day.
