Commentary by Nzwa Shoniwa, Managing Executive at Sanlam Umbrella Solutions (Sanlam Corporate)

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s SONA 2026 again placed small and medium enterprises (SMMEs) at the centre of South Africa’s jobs strategy - with a simple, compelling test: if every small and medium business employed just one additional person, millions of jobs could be created. The policy intent is clear: reduce friction, unlock investment, and make it easier for entrepreneurs to start, survive and scale.

But SMME-led job creation will only shift the country’s long-term trajectory if the jobs created translate into sustainable livelihoods. That means looking beyond headline employment numbers to the quality of work and the financial resilience it creates for employees and for business owners themselves.

In practical terms, job quality is not an abstract concept. It shows up in whether a worker can withstand an unexpected medical bill, a period of unemployment, or a spike in living costs without being pushed into debt. It shows up in whether a household can preserve savings when someone changes jobs. And it shows up most starkly in what happens decades later: whether people retire with dignity or reach old age financially exposed.

This is the risk in South Africa’s labour market today: job creation without benefits, and without consistent retirement contributions, does not deliver long-term financial security. It can still leave workers vulnerable to shocks and can entrench a cycle where people work for years yet accumulate little protection or retirement capital. For SMMEs, this vulnerability also becomes an operational risk, because financially fragile workforces are more likely to churn, to take on high-cost debt, or to exit employment altogether when pressures mount.

SONA’s emphasis on “more jobs and better-quality jobs” is therefore an important framing and it creates a useful opportunity to widen the definition of “better” in a way that is measurable and meaningful. A better-quality job is not only one with a payslip; it is one that steadily builds resilience through structured, sustained long-term saving and protection.

The opportunity now is execution. The President signalled an intention to reduce the regulatory burden on smaller businesses and to ensure that reforms - from licensing to access to finance - make it easier to operate formally and competitively. The commitments around strengthening infrastructure investment, stabilising key network industries, improving water and logistics performance, and tightening procurement integrity all matter because they directly shape the cost of doing business for smaller firms. For SMMEs, reliable services and predictable administration are not “nice to have”; they are the difference between hiring and holding back.

However, alongside making it easier to run a small business, South Africa must also make it easier to employ sustainably — including making retirement fund participation practical for smaller employers. Many small businesses, including micro-employers, want to do right by their people but face real constraints: tight cashflows, limited HR capacity, complex administration, and uncertainty about compliance. In that environment, benefits are often treated as optional — and retirement contributions are often the first thing to fall away.

If we are serious about turning SMME job creation into durable livelihoods, the year ahead should focus on a set of simple, deliverable outcomes that support both hiring and long-term security:

• Make retirement saving easier to implement for small employers. Reduce administrative complexity so that participating in long-term savings is not treated as “corporate-only”. Simplicity, affordability and portability are what matter most at SMME level.

• Protect savings when people change jobs. South Africa’s retirement outcomes are often weakened by leakage when workers move between employers or face disruption. Preservation should be the default path — because “retirement outcomes start long before retirement”.

• Use skills and youth employment pathways to build early financial resilience. As government works to expand workplace-based learning and improve youth employment incentives, there is a parallel opportunity: ensure that first-time entrants into the labour market start building long-term savings habits alongside skills and work experience.

• Reward formal, quality employment through the ecosystem around SMMEs. As procurement reforms and access-to-finance initiatives are strengthened, the wider system should recognise and enable employers who create not only jobs, but stable jobs with sustained contributions and protection.

If South Africa has indeed entered a “window of opportunity”, as the President suggested, then the test of the next phase is whether faster growth translates into reduced vulnerability and stronger household balance sheets, not only higher employment counts. Because when jobs do not build long-term security, the country ultimately pays twice: once in persistent financial fragility during working life, and again when large numbers of people reach retirement without adequate provision.

SMMEs can and should be the engine of job creation. The policy agenda now needs to ensure that the jobs created are stepping-stones into resilience — not just a temporary income stream. Sustainable livelihoods are built when work is linked to protection, preservation and long-term saving. That is how SMME growth becomes shared prosperity over time.