No to Xenophobia and Divisions Between Workers! Forward to a Workers Government!
The Xenophobic Instigation in South Africa and the Tasks of the Working Class
Introduction
On 30 June 2026 many townships, city streets and other locations in South Africa were turned into scenes of an organised pogrom against black migrant workers. Migrants were killed, injured and terrorised; bricks were hurled through the windows of homes in Yeoville and Hillbrow; Sepedi-speaking South Africans were murdered near Germiston for being mistaken for foreigners; Xitsonga-speaking women traders were beaten at the taxi ranks for the crime of their language; several migrant-owned businesses were looted. The state's R600 million security deployment guarded the property of big business and left the persecuted to their fate. In the days that followed, vigilante patrols hunted human beings from door to door. This was not a spontaneous eruption of popular anger. It was the product of a months-long mobilisation, announced in advance, financed through US-Zionist imperialist channels, openly conducted by named organisations and individuals and enabled at every step by the ANC-led GNU. Sadly, all the labour federations have abdicated their responsibility towards the undocumented migrant workers by adopting national chauvinistic and divisive positions.
The causes of xenophobia are rooted in the local realities of South Africa, however, the injection of imperialist money into the campaign, has intentionally escalated the issue to a new level, from previous episodic outbursts to an institutionalised current in national politics – it has become a violent battering ram for reactionary interests. Make no mistake, US imperialism (with its Zionist attack dog) – in cahoots with sections of the South African capitalist class – is behind this development with all their billionaires ready to send whatever funding is needed. Either they will drag the South African working class through decades of violent struggles for their very survival and to protect whatever gains have been made in previous struggles, or the working class will rise to the occasion and settle scores with reaction and its capitalist and imperialist masters once and for all.
Whereas the US-Zionist imperialist intervention is a very serious matter indeed, it must not be mistaken for the main cause of xenophobia in South Africa, that would only serve the GNU and local capitalist class. It is secondary – an opportunistic and parasitic attachment to a faultline in the South African body politic, one that is still in its early phase.
South African organisations have not been silent or sitting on their hands but have given rise to a growing groundswell against xenophobia and its true causes.
I. The economic and social context of xenophobia in South Africa
Xenophobia is a political instrument wielded by the ruling class – instigated from above and connected with reactionary agents from below under conditions of utter desperation. Those conditions are two-fold, and the discussion notes on xenophobia by the Campaign to Scrap the Labour Law Amendment Bill states them accurately: the deepening of the social and economic crisis, and the non-existence of a progressive mass movement.[1] Tens of millions are unemployed; austerity has gutted the public services; the cost of living has made necessities unaffordable – and thirty years of demobilisation by the Tripartite Alliance has destroyed the organisations through which the working class once interpreted its suffering in class terms and fought back collectively. Into that vacuum steps the xenophobic explanation, which is attractive to some precisely because it is simple, visible and actionable – the migrant lives next door, while the shareholder lives behind walls in Sandton, New York or London.
The central question must be confronted head-on, because it is the hinge on which mass consciousness turns – the undercutting of local workers. There are organisations who deny that undercutting exists and thereby hand the terrain to the xenophobic agitators who exploit it endlessly; for the worker who experiences downward pressure on wages is not hallucinating, nor is the one with no job who sees the migrant worker coming home from work every night. The reality must be faced head-on and approached with the only correct progressive perspective, namely the tried and tested Marxist approach. The employer does not prefer migrant workers because of their nationality, but because of their desperate condition – and above all, in the present conjuncture, because of their manufactured illegality. This is not to say that documented migrants get similar wages and conditions to local workers, far from it, but whereas their desperation is fully exploited, undocumented workers are many times more desperate. The undocumented worker can be paid below the wage of even the documented migrant, denied UIF and pension, dismissed without process, and disciplined by the threat of a telephone call to Home Affairs. He or she cannot safely join a union, approach the CCMA or testify against the employer. Every one of these disabilities boosts profits and is created by his or her illegal status, and every one of them is a rand added to the boss's profit. Enforcement – raids, deportations, document checks, sanctions on employers for hiring the undocumented – so beloved of our trade union federations, deepens the rightlessness and therefore deepens the discount to the boss. The undocumented migrant worker does not necessarily leave but goes further underground and becomes even cheaper as a means to survive. Equal labour rights abolish the discount, the competition and the divisiveness because a worker who can join the union, claim an equal wage and report the employer without meeting a deportation van is no longer cheap, and the employer's discriminatory preference for him or her evaporates, bringing equality and protecting the conditions of the local workers and their living standards. The defence of the local worker's wage runs through the migrant worker's rights, not over them.
South Africans have a history of being made illegal in their own country. The pass laws were exactly a regime of manufactured illegal presence – influx control produced millions of black South Africans as illegal persons in the cities of their own country, and the function of that illegality was cheap labour for the mines, the farms and the kitchens. The dompas was the legal creation of a rightless, and therefore cheap, worker. Those who today demand door-to-door document checks and an intensified hunt for the undocumented are demanding the reconstruction of influx control with the nationality of its victims changed – the same machinery, the same beneficiary, only this time supervised by the ANC-led government and the labour federations.
As Cde Oupa Lehulere established in his foundational South African text at the time of the first xenophobic outbreak in 2008, migration follows capital: as long as South African capital extracts wealth from the region – as long as the mines, banks and retail monopolies headquartered in Johannesburg drain the surplus of the subcontinent – migration towards South Africa is as certain as day following night, and the regional working class constitutes a single reserve army of labour.[2]
II. Immigration and the classical Marxist approach
The Second International at its 1907 Congress in Stuttgart (when it was still a revolutionary organisation) confronted the question of mass migration and its impact on the local (native) working class – competition for jobs and pressure on wages – and answered it decisively. Lenin wrote a report on the congress and fully supported its resolution on immigration and emigration;[3] in addition, he wrote another article on the topic.[4] The resolution was the outcome of a discussion in which reactionary anti-immigration views were defended by the Socialist Party of America.[5] The position underlying the resolution carried forward the understanding elaborated by Marx in his 9 April 1870 letter to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt regarding the impact of Irish labour immigration to England.[6] The Marxist position was then concretised in the original constitution of revolutionary Russia, adopted in 1918.[7] It is a worthwhile starting point to summarise the Marxist position from these experiences; we do so below, using sub-headings for ease of navigation.
The relationship between Immigration and Capitalism
Immigration is as inseparable from the nature of capitalism as for instance unemployment is, it cannot be stopped.
Immigration is employed by the capitalists as one of the means to reduce the worker's share in the product of his/her labour.
Economic opportunities in advanced countries attract workers from poorer countries. Immigration is driven by dire poverty.
Capitalism exploits the immigrants shamelessly.
Capitalism brings workers from backward countries into the orbit of the 'international class of factory owners'. Immigration is progressive in the sense that it is breaking down national barriers. Lenin expounds this more, "And it is into this struggle that capitalism is drawing the masses of the working people of the whole world, breaking down the musty, fusty habits of local life, breaking down national barriers and prejudices, uniting workers from all countries in huge factories and mines in America, Germany, and so forth" (Lenin).
Defend the migrant worker's right to sell his/her labour power
Workers have the right to sell their labour power across borders and this needs to be defended.
For freedom of migration.
No discrimination against migrants
Discriminatory restrictions on which nationalities are allowed to immigrate, are unacceptable jingoism.
Competition with local workers
Immigration causes competition with local workers and pushes down wages, 'lowers the material and moral position of the English working class' (Marx), and divides the working class into two hostile camps. Lenin expanded this point as follows, "The bourgeoisie incites the workers of one nation against those of another in the endeavour to keep them disunited. Class-conscious workers, realising that the break-down of all the national barriers by capitalism is inevitable and progressive, are trying to help to enlighten and organise their fellow-workers from the backward countries" (Lenin).
On national chauvinism
The local worker sees him/herself as a member of the 'ruling nation' (Marx) and becomes a tool of the bourgeoisie.
The local worker cherishes prejudices against the immigrant worker.
This antagonism is artificially kept alive and intensified by the ruling class and its media.
This antagonism weakens the local working class, even if it has high levels of organisation as in England in Marx's time.
Protecting the living standards of local workers
Marx made it clear that the local workers are duty bound to protect their living standards, meaning through organisation against the bosses and alongside the migrant workers.
No to strike-breakers
One restriction that was supported by Stuttgart, was the prevention of the importation and exportation of strike-breakers.
No one is illegal
Revolutionaries do not accept that there is such a thing as an illegal immigrant.
Solidarity, unionisation and equal rights
Revolutionaries recognise immigrants as fellow members of the working class and build solidarity between them and local workers.
Revolutionaries fight for equal rights for immigrants, meaning all the rights that locals have.
The local workers need to see that their solution is in revolutions in the countries the migrants come from.
Immigrants must be organised into the trade unions, and they must have the same rights as local members.
A shorter working day and minimum wage were promoted by Stuttgart.
International trade union agreements
International trade union agreements must be made to defend migrant workers.
Shelter for all refugees
Shelter must be provided to all foreigners who seek refuge from political or religious persecution.
III. Cde Oupa Lehulere Applied the Marxist Approach to South Africa
The late Marxist activist Cde Oupa Lehulere, published a seminal article in 2008 on immigration and xenophobia in South Africa, that applied the lessons of the classical Marxist tradition to the South African phenomenon highly competently; it is not a coincidence that nobody could improve on his analysis over the past almost twenty years. Every serious current in the movement against xenophobia has to acknowledge Cde Lehulere's analysis, which should be the starting point in the discourse on the issue.[8] The comrade pointed out that 'retrogressive' xenophobic tendencies within the working class were the result of the "political and organisational demobilisation of the working class that has been underway since 1994, if not since 1990". The comrade put the cause of xenophobic violence squarely at the door of what he calls the petty bourgeoisie of the townships (businesspeople, local councillors, SANCO functionaries, and the Community Police Forums). Xenophobia has been the response of these strata to the specific economic crisis and the weaknesses of the organisations of the working class created the space for them to define the way the response to the crisis has unfolded.
He also drew attention to the fact that xenophobic views infected the top layers of the Congress Alliance, and that the ANC leaders in the townships were engrossed in struggles to capture state resources for personal gain, which replaced struggles around political ideas. The ANC branches, therefore, stopped "expressing the needs and political aspirations of the ordinary township resident". He saw the hegemony of the Congress Alliance as having based itself on the political and organisational demobilisation of the working class in the townships. The comrade, basing himself on the 28 May 2008 statement of COSATU's Central Executive Committee, called the federation out for having lost "all sense of working-class internationalism". He correctly identified undertones of national chauvinism and xenophobia in its statement that called on employers to fire illegal immigrants! Cde Lehulere pointed out how leaders of SANCO, the civic component of the Congress Alliance, spoke in openly xenophobic terms and used migrants as scapegoats for their own failures and corruption.
He outlined a position that he argued was common. The position is that xenophobia is a form of competition for resources between the two groups in the working class, "even though it is argued that this perception on the part of the South African working class is 'misguided' and 'untrue'". The basic problem that Cde Lehulere had with this position is that it makes a direct link between the presence of immigrants in the townships and xenophobic violence. Cde Lehulere put the political and organisational weakness of the progressive and left currents within the workers movement in the centre of his analysis. These are strong and insightful points, but we should not deny or minimise the competition provided by migrant workers. One migrant worker in a factory, obviously displaces a local worker. If revolutionaries do not admit these realities, then we would be ceding the field to the xenophobic reactionaries. It is obvious that as a reserve army for the capitalists, migrant labour is an automatic downward pressure on wages – the competition is real. The issue is how to respond to it, and here we are one with the comrade.
The comrade correctly extolls the slogan of the social movements that no-one is illegal as an internationalist slogan.
Cde Lehulere correctly summed up the relation between the South African state, South African monopoly capital, and the continent, "As an agent of South African capital, the South African state is responsible for policies that undermine African economies, it is responsible for policies that extract wealth from Africa into South Africa, and it is responsible for policies that are concentrating the capital of the continent – both human and financial – into South Africa. As sure as day follows night, the movement of people will always follow the movement of capital. … African 'immigrants' are therefore here to stay, and no amount of ostrich politics on the part of COSATU will change this". He wrote about how the regional economies integrated into the South African economy, and the regional markets integrated into the South African market. South African monopoly capital has undermined the economies of the continent and the region and "South African capital thereby transforms the entire working class of the region into an industrial reserve army…."
Cde Lehulere successfully proved his point that, "Fellow African working-class people from other parts of Africa … are as much producers of this wealth as are workers who are South African citizens". He concluded that they are as much entitled to share in the wealth of South Africa as are the local workers. The question of how this wealth will be shared, is tied to the socialist revolution and the slogan of the Socialist States of Southern Africa.
Cde Lehulere supports the slogan, "For Open Borders" and explains his views on it in great detail. He showed how open borders exist for capital, capitalists the middle classes and white people; only the worker is caged. He saw this slogan as the most strategic one in the struggle against xenophobia. But what does he mean by open borders? In line with the classical Marxist tradition, he did not call for the dismantling of the borders. From the examples he gave, his focus was in fact on a visa-free regime, which is closer to the freedom of migration slogan of the classical Marxist tradition.[9] We see this slogan as not synchronised with its meaning, nor is it in line with the classical Marxist tradition - freedom of migration seems to serve the needs of the working class struggle better.
IV. The Campaign to Scrap the Labour Law Amendment Bill and the Simunye Workers Forum took up the torch from Cde Lehulere
The situation as outlined by Comrade Lehulere has in fact deteriorated greatly since 2008, to the extent that xenophobia in South Africa has now been transformed into the merging of foreign US-Zionist imperialist forces with reactionary tribal and political forces that has reached the stage of institutionalisation with access to finance and the global mass media and online bot farms. This is because in the intervening 18 years, the two causes he pointed out have become intensified and heaped even more misery on the working class.
The Campaign to Scrap the Labour Law Amendment Bill (The Campaign) met two days after the 30 June reactionary events and issued their Notes on the Xenophobia Outbreaks.[10] The Notes contain an excellent summary of the situation, links it to the previous outbreaks, and provides a sound analysis of the xenophobia crisis in South Africa. They point out that the previous outbreaks had a 'short, explosive character and died down without being sustained' and were petty bourgeois inspired (following Cde Lehulere's definition). In contrast, the current wave has been sustained over a long period of time, assumed a mass character, attracted new layers of the working class to their fold (such as the unemployed township youth and even young children), and will most likely consolidate into enduring organisational forms. The Notes further brings attention to the reactionary forces leading the current wave and forewarns that it has given rise to 'an historical period of difficulties for egalitarian and solidaristic values that are central to the building of a new mass movement'. The mass character of the movement shows that it is connecting with deep-seated sentiments within the working class. Very worrisome is the self-initiative noticed in some areas, which has the ability to lead to xenophobic organisations in townships.
They point out that the movement has acquired 'shock troops' in the form of forces inside the Apartheid hostels and the amabutho. The Notes link the xenophobic wave to the upcoming local government elections (as a stepping stone towards the national elections in 2029) and makes the strong point that the collapse of the ANC's hegemony over the masses means that the ANC is no longer a safe bet to get into positions and that the petty bourgeoisie are tying their wagons to xenophobia as a means into the state structures. The reactionary forces are linking with real grievances such as unemployment and making migrants the scapegoats. They expect the current wave of xenophobia to be a permanent feature for a whole historical period. There is now a sustained reign of terror against migrant workers. Non-Zulu ethnic groups were also attacked, apparently by mistake, and reports surfaced of other tribal groups talking of confronting Zulu-ethnic groups.
The Notes highlight two conditions enabling the xenophobic wave, the deepening social and economic crisis and the absence of a progressive mass movement. Again, correctly following Cde Lehulere. They make a very important call for safe places for migrants, something that needs to be taken up urgently!
The Simunye Workers Forum – A Class Answer from the Shop Floor
One of the sharpest interventions in the present xenophobia crisis has come not from a federation office or a theoretical journal but from a small, unregistered union of labour broker and casual workers in Germiston.[11] In July 2026 the Simunye Workers Forum published two articles in its newsletter Phantsi Capitalism! dealing directly with the pogroms. These articles, like in the case of the Notes, are firmly grounded in the method and application of Cde Lehulere's seminal article, and follow them faithfully. In the first article,[12] they refuse to treat the violence as a spontaneous eruption of popular anger. They name the organised forces – March & March, Operation Dudula, the MKP and ActionSA, and the newly mobilised amabutho – and then expose the class beneficiaries, the bosses who are using the terror to dismiss thousands of migrant workers, after years of super-exploitation, without paying them a cent, while landlords evict them from their rooms. They answer the question of who is to blame unambiguously – capitalism, and specifically a monopoly structure in which roughly eighty per cent of the economy rests in the hands of a handful of corporations, where factories run at some seventy-eight per cent of capacity because wages are too low to buy back what workers produce, and where non-financial companies sit on R1,8 trillion in idle cash while permanent employment is dismantled. Just as importantly, it explains the political vacuum in which xenophobia has been emerging, the ANC's acceptance of capitalism in 1994, and the systematic demobilisation and atomisation of the mass movement over three decades by the ANC together with COSATU and the SACP. The xenophobic formations, the SWF observes, are not anti-capitalist at all, have no economic or political programme beyond blaming migrants, and seek not to overturn the establishment but to enter it – the Patriotic Alliance and Gayton McKenzie being the model of the type.
The second article,[13] of 14 July, moves from analysis to the positive task of unity, using concrete examples. It recalls the community organising against the 2008 attacks by the Anti-Privatisation Forum and others and cites two recent shop-floor cases where local and migrant workers took united action. It draws the lesson explicitly – that mass unemployment alongside the presence of migrants does not automatically produce xenophobia – and reinforces it with the memory of the workers' movements of the 1930s, which fought fascism alongside migrants rather than against them. From this vantage point the SWF says loudly and clearly that SAFTU and COSATU are themselves xenophobic, have lost all sense of internationalism, with their demands that the state closes the borders, keep out the undocumented and police the bosses who employ them. The explanation of the objective basis of migration itself is equally uncompromising and follows Cde Lehulere's analysis.
Here we have a workers forum of casual and labour broker workers who produced a coherent working class response to xenophobia that is steeped in the history of the workers movement and working class solidarity, something that the labour federations could not produce despite all their resources; this is itself the most eloquent commentary on the state of the official labour movement in South Africa.
V. The ugly, infiltrating hand of Zionism and US Imperialism
Since South Africa dared to lodge its famous case against Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people at the International Court of Justice, US imperialism, and of course Zionist Israel have painted a large target on its back. They started to undermine and humiliate the country in any way possible, with clear intentions to split it into smaller units. It first became noticeable when Trump and Musk made various anti-government statements and jumped on the bandwagon of those who propagate the notion of a white genocide in South Africa. The dirty hands of Zionism have been exposed in the current xenophobic campaign in the country. This development is now in the open and social media is continuously recycling this news story.
One of the most informative reports can be found in a video posted by David Hundeyin, investigative journalist, author and filmmaker, on X.[14] He points out the following. We summarise his key points below.
South Africa's current Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi, implied that Israel is funding the groups behind the xenophobic riots.
The Israeli Foreign Minister replied by using the xenophobic riots to undermine the human rights credentials of South Africa, which actually shows their hand.
He points to suspicions from various quarters that Afrophobia in South Africa has been a 'well-funded and carefully curated' Israel project, over a long period of time.
The aims are to isolate South Africa from the rest of Africa and to balkanise it.
The Israeli media discusses this openly.
He claims that the dots can be easily connected to verify the above exposures, by looking into the 'overnight' sensations who emerged at the head of this movement, their links to certain political parties and their funding.
Mashaba, leader of ActionSA, one of the leading xenophobic parties, received about R57 million since 2021 from Martin Moshal, a Zionist billionaire, who maintains deep ties to the genocidal IDF and the Israeli state. Moshal handed another roughly R43 million to six other groups (Hundeyin's totals diverge from IEC-based figures).[15] The groups he supports are all pro-capitalist; they support Elon Musk style non-racialism (in other words white supremacy – fixing Apartheid is racist). Some of the supported parties did not take a clear stand on the xenophobic campaign, but ActionSA and Inkatha have been part of organising the marches. These two parties also oppose BEE, which they share with Musk.
He expects the IFP to later campaign for regional autonomy or independence as part of the balkanisation plan.
He sees this as part of the Mossad plan to fragment Africa.
Hundeyin did not mention the Western Cape, which already has a foreign citizen – Phil Craig – of an imperialist nation, Britain in this case, agitating for independence from the country and building support from a foreign nation for it.[16] His group sent a delegation to Trump to ask him to help them break the Western Cape away and he himself wrote an Open Letter to Trump to help with that. This is treason and a new attempt at colonialism, yet the ANC is fine with it – nothing to see here. This development is still in its early stages and is a warning to the working class of South Africa and of the continent as a whole. It is noted that the South African government is aware of this development, but is it taking it seriously by taking decisive steps against Musk's and Trump's white supremacist views, Israel's involvement and the financiers of xenophobia? Certainly not, it is cosying up to Musk and Trump and largely ignores their roles in what is happening. Once again, it is an enabler. If reference is made to this development, as in the case of the Justice Minister, then it is to deflect blame from itself. This US-Zionist Imperialist plot must not be underestimated, but more importantly, the government must not be allowed to use it to deflect attention from its own role in enabling the xenophobic campaign and for responsibility for the social and economic conditions that provide the context for xenophobia in the first place.
VI. The Role of the Government in Enabling June 30
In this section we draw greatly on The Campaign's Notes. The South African state did not just fail to prevent 30 June; it prepared the ground for it, licensed it, and policed it in the interests of property.
First, it provided political cover from the lofty heights of the state. From the President's State of the Nation address of February 2026 onwards, the government has given legal, political and constitutional legitimacy to the xenophobic mob that was being gathered, validating the 'issue' of immigration as the question of the day precisely when its own failures demanded deflection.
Second, the government's legislative offensive has been paving the way for 30 June; citizenship and migration laws are being rewritten to admit only rich immigrants, the Labour Law Amendment Bill making the employment of undocumented migrants a punishable act and thereby deepening the very rightlessness that cheapens them in the labour market, and the PIE Amendment Bill sharpening the state's eviction machinery against the poor as such.
Third, there is the administrative war; intensified deportations, deliberate foot-dragging on visas and refugee documentation – manufacturing the illegality it then denounces – street stalls demolished, and migrant shops welded shut.
Fourth, there is the conduct of the coercive apparatus itself; a SAPS and Home Affairs that are institutionally xenophobic, police who co-operated with vigilantes in Germiston and declined to disperse a crowd setting fire to Jeppe, a Johannesburg metro that approved marches through migrant-dense areas and let unauthorised marchers roam freely.
Fifth, the R600 million deployment of 30 June, which protected the property of big business and the continuity of 'law and order' while everyone in the migrant-rich quarters along the march routes was terrorised.
Sixth, this deplorable government has now come to the conclusion that migrants fleeing across the border to safety, are repatriating voluntarily and on top of this they call it a successful government action.[17] This is the most cynical cover anybody can provide for the xenophobic pogroms.
And seventh, there is the tell-tale exception; only when the masses of Ghana and Nigeria began targeting Checkers, MTN and the other South African monopolies on their soil, did Pretoria discover its anti-xenophobic vocabulary – this was public relations addressed to African governments and to white monopoly capital, whose continental extraction must not be disturbed. The government is currently sinking in a diplomatic disaster of its own making; in one example, Ghana, weary of the looming 30 June deadline, initiated a process to discuss the xenophobic crisis in South Africa at the African Union meeting on 24-27 June 2026.
However, at the meeting South Africa managed to block any discussion of the matter arguing that the issue was not xenophobia, thereby legitimising the pogroms and coming across as a dishonourable bully. But the matter did not stop there, a few days later Ghana and Nigeria regrouped and decided to raise the issue at the next AU meeting in early 2027, they got the support from the ECOWAS foreign ministers meeting.[18] The ANC-led government has lost a lot of credibility since 30 June and has rightly been called out for its human rights hypocrisy. The South African movement against xenophobia must support any diplomatic sanctions against the enabling of xenophobia, provided they are not cynical as in the case of the Israeli criticisms. We are also noting a groundswell across Africa, spearheaded by young people, to hold the South African government and monopolies to account for 30 June and its effects. The boycott movement against South African companies is growing.
Nay, the South African state is not an ally in the fight against xenophobia. It is the enabler of the pogrom, it provides cover for it and it guarantees the conditions that produced it and continues to reproduce it – and any strategy that misplaces its confidence in the ability of this government to protect migrants, rather than organising the class to protect itself, mistakes the arsonist for the fire brigade. To repeat a very concise and accurate passage from the Notes, "The blaming of migrants for the socio-economic malaise in the country is a convenient deflection away from the GNU neoliberal pro-capital policies and measures". The GNU government, under the leadership of the ANC, has been enabling both the 30 June pogroms as well as the Zionist infiltration.
VII. South African Organisations Stand up for Workers' Unity unlike the Trade Union Federations and SACP
The xenophobic trend has done a lot to clarify the political scene in South Africa. It has exposed the Congress Alliance including its labour wing, COSATU, as complicit in the growth of this reactionary development. And as we will see, it has brought to the fore SAFTU's, FEDUSA's and NACTU's national chauvinistic attitudes as well. Socialist organisations, NGOs and especially community-based organisations in the townships, have been actively countering xenophobia on the ground and within the national political scene. This response is growing and currently constitutes the most encouraging development of the period; it deserves acknowledgement and to be built upon by all who value human rights, at the minimum. These contributions demonstrate that the raw material of a new progressive mass movement already exists – scattered, uneven, and in need of a unifying program – but existing and already establishing united structures such as Siyafana Sonke, The Campaign and the Healthcare Workers Against Xenophobia. Slogans and demands have risen from all quarters of the growing movement and need to be consolidated as part of a general manifesto or program of the movement. In this section we draw on Cde Lehulere's paper, the writings of the organisations already mentioned, as well as of Keep Left/Socialism from Below, the Simunye Workers Forum, the Azanian Section of the Fourth International, Abahlali base Freedom Park, and Zabalaza for Socialism. It must be stated loudly and clearly that these organisations are doing exceptional work, with some understandably being closer to the coalface than others.
The trade union federations on the xenophobia crisis
We mentioned COSATU's 2008 position, but did anything change since then? Nothing much as we shall see below.
Two weeks before the 30 June pogroms, COSATU, SAFTU, NACTU and FEDUSA released a joint statement through NEDLAC titled, Organised Labour Statement on Migration and South Africa's Economic Crisis.[19] The statement starts off very progressively, but this is only while it treats the issue in general terms. It acknowledges the frustrations of millions who face economic hardships, but states clearly that migrants are not to blame for this. Instead, it cites the real causes as "economic stagnation, deindustrialisation, mass unemployment, corruption, austerity, weak governance, and the failure to build an economy that serves the majority". They state that migrants should not be made scapegoats for failures they did not cause and that removing migrants from workplaces and communities will not "reopen factories, repair municipalities, strengthen public healthcare or create sustainable jobs". The answer lies in "fixing the economy, creating decent work and rebuilding the state". The federations express serious concerns about the level of coordination and political orchestration of the current anti-immigrant surge. They speak out against the promotion of tribalism, chauvinism and conflict between African people, which are endemic to the new anti-immigrant surge.
They emphasise on more than one occasion, the need for unity between all workers – local and migrant, and across all manufactured lines of division – in order to confront exploitation and fight for the rights of workers. They emphasise the slogan: An injury to one is an injury to all. The statement comes out 'unequivocally' against vigilantism, stating that no individual or organisation has the right to check people's papers or status. The statement is excellent and even helpful up to this point, but then it loses its own plot by going against every excellent point it has just made.
Firstly, it enables xenophobia by supporting the right to march of the pogromists, hate speech is illegal in South Africa and should be used to make life difficult for the pogromists.
Secondly, the old COSATU treachery has now become endorsed by all the labour federations, "…Organised Labour is firmly opposed to the unlawful employment of undocumented migrants". They call for steps against undocumented workers and the employers. The statement recognises the role of the employers in using undocumented workers to undercut local workers and conditions, but they embrace chauvinistic methods to deal with the situation, by calling for a 'focus' on both undocumented migrants and their employers. They do this then later cynically state that migrant workers should not be blamed.
Thirdly, the labour federations again show their true chauvinistic faces with the following statement, "Government must also accept responsibility for allowing the crisis to grow. Weak border management, inadequate labour inspection, failing Home Affairs systems, corruption and the underfunding of frontline institutions have contributed directly to public frustration". The government is not criticised for enabling the xenophobic surge, nor for being responsible for ensuring the conditions that keep the majority in poverty, merely for being a bit slow and administratively inept. They want the government to step up using the resources of the state to terrorise the undocumented migrants. Is this not what the vigilantes are doing? Does this not show that the labour federations actually agree with the pogromists, just not with their methods?
Fourthly, starting well with a positive outreach across Africa, the reasoning behind it exposes the federations once again, "We therefore emphasise the urgent need for a coordinated regional and continental development programme to address the deep inequalities and uneven economic development that persist across Africa. Unless these structural disparities are tackled, migration from less developed countries to relatively more developed economies, such as South Africa, will continue. This pattern of migration, combined with high unemployment, poverty, inequality and inadequate public services, fuels the anti-migrant sentiments that have become increasingly prevalent in South Africa today". Let us start at the end, they stated that migrants did not cause the economic problems in South Africa, so now they slip in the opposite. What development programme are they going on about? They could not fix economic inequality in South Africa over thirty years, now they will fix it in the region and on the continent? Who are they trying to fool? Will this be a cross-border NDR or 'developmental state' for the entire continent? The working class has had enough of this demoralising empty talk. They refuse to acknowledge that capitalism does not have any solutions for the crises of South Africa, the region and the continent. Hence they can merely remix the same old songs to fool the masses. Why? For the simple reason that the labour leaders are as scared of socialism as the capitalists – they just like to talk about it from time to time to calm the masses down.
Fifth, they blame the other African countries for being underdeveloped, but they keep quiet about the fact that it is imperialism that is underdeveloping them, including junior South African imperialism. Truly pathetic.
Sixth, the federations then abdicate from the field of politics in favour of their governments (the GNU in South Africa) by calling on organised labour across Africa, Asia and beyond to hold their governments accountable – yes, that is all!
Towards the end the statement calls on workers to report for work on 30 June, threatening them that not doing so would not be protected. What if workers wanted to stay at home to protect their homes, their families, their neighbours and their communities? No, the bosses must make their profits. This is not a political appeal to the workers, but a free service to the bosses. It is interesting to note that this is the most actionable aspect of this entire statement. It is disappointing to see that even SAFTU and NACTU have forgotten the revolutionary working class tradition and succumbed to national chauvinism. Cde Lehulere pointed out the national chauvinistic attitudes displayed by the federations in detail as if he was sitting in the room. This statement by the federations is so shameful that the bosses and the GNU might as well sign it too.
The SACP and the Conference of the Left
The Conference of the Left met in Boksburg from 29 to 31 May 2026 under the theme Building a Left Movement for Working Class and Popular Power, convened by the SACP working through a steering committee of participating organisations.[20] Its Declaration, adopted on the final day, begins, like the position of the labour federations, by pushing all the right buttons – which is a typically opportunist method of getting ready to sell the workers out.
The Declaration consciously fudges the two groups of migrants ('illegal' and legal). It goes into lengthy sections where it generally states positions along similar lines to this paper, but a careful reading shows that these statements are reserved for 'legal' migrants, which the Declaration simply refers to as migrants, to confuse the reader. When it comes to undocumented migrants, the Declaration is brief, vague and in a hurry to move on – but this shows its true character. Having established that 'migrants' did not cause the crisis, the Declaration announces that "illegal migration is a matter of serious concern" and offers as its remedy "effective border management" and "proper documentation systems".[21] The reference to migration is a pretence at moving the focus away from workers, presenting the issue as one of systems. However, documentation systems are checked and enforced by the police confronting real human beings. Nothing is stated either way about deportations and no calling out of the organisations behind the xenophobic pogroms is made – one (maybe two) of them was sitting in the very conference hall. The purpose is clearly for the Declaration to not confront the main issue of undocumented migrants, most probably due to the differing positions on precisely that issue at the conference.
Consider also where the issue of xenophobia is dealt with. Migration appears in section 5 of the Declaration, under the amorphous heading "Social violence, community safety, migration and climate justice", sandwiched between organised crime and the climate - not really an important enough focus, it seems. And this was a month away from an aggressive deadline that was set for undocumented migrants. The lack of a clear position must be seen as enabling xenophobia.
Who exactly is being asked to manage this border? The SACP remains within the Congress Alliance, and its leaders continue to participate in the state that administers the deportations. The party is therefore addressing the demand to itself and its ANC and COSATU allies. As with the labour federations, cover is provided for the state as it is faulted for administrative weakness rather than for enabling the xenophobic escalation and for enforcing the conditions that give rise to xenophobia in the first place.
Criticisms of the ANC-led government for its failures are repeatedly muted, which amounts to apologising for it. We see this in formulations such as, "The state has too often been subordinated to austerity, investor confidence, financial markets and the interests of monopoly capital". Too often subordinated! This is a softening and opens a door through which the ANC-led government can escape; for instance, there are therefore acknowledged times when it was not subordinate so it can just do more of that and be less subordinate going forward. The ANC can even admit this, make an excuse and say sorry, and look good. Referring to the state, saves the Declaration from calling out the ANC-led government which the SACP is a part of.
The SACP will be standing in the upcoming local government elections, and the timing of this conference is not a coincidence. The SACP has been dragged down by its class-collaborationist marriage with the national bourgeois ANC and the slow-motion political collapse of its alliance partner. The decision of its Fifth Special National Congress in December 2024 to contest all municipal elections in 2026 independent from the ANC, must be seen as a means to revitalise itself in the eyes of the working class. The Conference of the Left must be understood in this context of its renewed search for relevance in the eyes of the working class, and to do so it needs something new, it needs cover from forces on the left. The conference, given these developments and its timing, must be seen as the strategic launch of its election campaign, by projecting a leftward image and networking for votes.
In addition, the SACP Statement that announced the conference (see footnote 20), already showed its hand with its stated intention of building towards a left popular front. Popular fronts are class collaborationist alliances favoured by Stalinists, and they have been a strategy to sell out the interests of the working class to petty bourgeois and 'democratic' or nationalist bourgeois forces. Such a 'left' popular front will be just more of the same as far as the SACP is concerned, but with new opportunistic energy. The working class strategy is a united front, which includes only working class organisations.
None of these political weaknesses of the Declaration can be excused as an accident of drafting, because the question had been put to the conveners three weeks before the conference. Richard Pithouse, in an article published on the Zabalaza for Socialism website, observed that neither the SACP nor COSATU had issued any statement against the escalating xenophobic mobilisation and its reign of terror; that the conference program listed no migrant organisation and no discussion of xenophobia; and that no explicit opposition to xenophobia had been made a condition of participation – while the MK Party was invited to attend.[22] He proposed the exclusion of the MK Party, and that participation be made conditional upon an explicit commitment to opposing xenophobia and to naming the organisations promoting xenophobia. He also called on them to facilitate the inclusion of migrant organisations as participants and speakers, and to include a plenary session devoted to xenophobia. The conference proceeded without any of them, leading to Zabalaza for Socialism, followed by several other organisations, deciding to not participate in the Conference of the Left – to not be part of the SACP's class collaborationist circus and to not provide left cover for its attempt to reinvent itself. This was the correct, principled strategy, because participation would have allowed the SACP to disorientate the growing and genuine movement that is building up against xenophobia.
What was adopted in Boksburg is therefore not an oversight, it is a decision based on a political orientation. It is an attempt to save the SACP and the Congress Alliance by reinventing it with cover from left organisations. And it is a PR stunt for the November elections. The left organisations whose names are penned on the Declaration, have been outmanoeuvred and now bear responsibility for softening criticism of the ANC-led government, and for the national chauvinistic and anti-worker views expressed in the Declaration.
VIII. Slogans in the Period of Xenophobic Reaction
A slogan, as Cde Lehulere himself teaches, must be grounded in the immediate political conjuncture. The growing movement rising up to face this crisis, has been developing slogans appropriate to the period. Basing ourselves on these achievements, revolutionaries should bring coherence to them, unify and consolidate them further. Finally, Cde Lehulere has an extended section on the nature of slogans, which is well worth taking the time to read and reflect upon.
No one is illegal! This is the key slogan against xenophobia in the South African context; it opposes distinctions between migrants and defends undocumented migrants from being targeted with searches, document checks, raids and deportations. It also stands against the denial of basic rights and human rights.
No to racial profiling! Racial profiling leads to the police and vigilantes stopping people and asking for their documents or simply abusing them. Of course, this only happens to black people.
No to national chauvinism! We follow Cde Lehulere, who in following Marx stated, "In order for us to be able to engage immigrant communities and workers we need to free ourselves of unconscious (national) chauvinistic attitudes. The South African working class has in some ways assimilated the habit of its ruling class. Its ruling class thinks Africa is backward, that Africa needs to be civilised, that Africa is a failed continent with failed states and societies, that Africa is 'unsophisticated' and so on. These views of course form some of the basis of xenophobic attitudes. But more crucially for our discussion, these attitudes prevent us from learning any lessons from Africa".
Siyafana Sonke!
Close Lindela and all detention camps!
Down with calls to dismiss undocumented migrants!
Down with the Labour Law Amendment Bill
Equal rights for all workers on South African soil!
Equal pay, benefits and conditions for equal work!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Freedom of migration for all – No visas across the board!
No to tribalism! Yes to working class Unity!
No vote for xenophobic reactionaries and parties!
Capitalism will not divide us!
Ban Zionism and Israel!
Prosecute funders of hatred: xenophobia and genocide!
Work or a living unemployed benefit!
Nationalise the commanding heights of the economy to serve the people, not the minority!
Forward to a workers government!
Forward to the Socialist States of Southern Africa!
IX. Demands and Tasks of the movement against xenophobia
The links between the slogans, demands and tasks are strong and numerous, therefore there will be necessary repetitions here and there. Here we also note Cde Lehulere's salient instruction, "Strategic slogans represent the demand or demands that come out of a whole line of analysis, and these particular demands must be able to articulate with and feed into a whole set of subsidiary demands".
A. National Days of Action
Nothing grabs the nation's attention as powerfully as national days of action. At least one major union federation must support such actions for it to be successful. The movement must continually work towards such action days to put focus on the most vital issues, punish the bosses and government and to galvanise the workers into class-wide action.
B. Justice and Compensation for the victims of 30 June
Sustained pressure must be put on the South African government for its role in enabling 30 June.
Volunteer lawyers need to be gathered in South Africa and in countries to which migrants had to flee, to create legal and international human rights cases for justice and compensation for the victims of 30 June. The main target for these cases must be the South African government and the leaders and funders of the 30 June pogroms. The labour federations can play important roles in this.
As part of this campaign, the bosses must pay wages and back-pay for those dismissed since June 2026.
C. Government protection for migrants regardless of documentation status
Legal status for all migrants with full citizenship rights; blanket documentation for all.
Protecting the human rights of all migrants, including uninterrupted access to ART, TB treatment, and other essential medicines.
No racial profiling, document checks, raids or deportations.
No victimisation of migrants.
Implement all eight demands in the Call by the Healthcare Workers Against Xenophobia made in their 13 July 2026 statement.
D. Against the xenophobic pogroms and intimidation – immediate demands
Stop the xenophobic pogroms and intimidation! Build the Freedom Park Protocols in every township and community. For united workers' and community self-defence – joint South African–migrant street committees, night patrols and defence guards on the Thembelihle and Freedom Park model, under democratic community control, in every township.
Disband the vigilante structures. Full prosecution of the organisers and financiers of the 30 June violence – open the books on xenophobic organisations and investigate their funders.
Set up safe and secure places for displaced migrants.
Defend the spaza infrastructure of the townships – joint trader forums across nationality, codes against mutual undercutting, joint bulk buying.
E. Against undercutting the wages, benefits and conditions of workers and No to the super-exploitation of migrant labour
Equal pay, benefits and conditions for equal work, regardless of nationality or documents. The recent rally by workers in South Korea is a good lesson and guide for South Africa.[23] The rally took place in front of the gates of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries on 5 July 2026, against wage cuts and discriminatory treatment of migrants. The rally brought together the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the Korean Metal Workers' Union, the Ulsan Migrant Center, and various labour and civil society organisations; people came from all over the country to support the rally. This was a true example of international solidarity and showed that such solidarity supports both the rights of migrant workers and the existing wages and conditions of local workers.
Organise migrant workers in the trade unions. Lehulere was strong on this task, stating that COSATU should organise immigrant workers; to this we add all trade union federations and all independent unions. He stated that immigrants should not be organised in separate organisations. We agree with his position with an amendment, namely that where immigrants build their own progressive organisations, we support them fully.
Heavy fines on employers for underpayment of migrants, abusing them and union-busting – never for employing migrants. Workers and communities to check on all workplaces to supervise enforcement.
F. Against the crisis – make the capitalists pay
A massive programme of public works – housing, schools, clinics, water, electricity, rail – to employ millions at a living wage, financed by taxing the rich.
End austerity. Reverse the budget cuts; rebuild the public services as public goods under the democratic control of workers and communities.
Nationalise the mines, the banks and the other commanding heights of the economy under workers' control, without compensation to the monopolies that built their wealth on cheap black labour, local and migrant alike.
Land expropriation without compensation – a concrete programme of redistribution to those who work it and need it. Scrap the PIE Amendment Bill; not one eviction of the poor, South African or migrant.
Work or a living unemployed benefit! a living income for the unemployed; organise the unemployed into the movement as a fighting contingent, not a reserve for the pogromists.
G. The regional dimension
South African capital's looting of the region for hundreds of years, is a key driver of migration. Solidarity with the workers' movements of the Southern African region and beyond against the capitalist regimes and South African monopolies alike, is essential for overcoming the machinations to divide the workers, keep them in poverty and break up Africa into smaller pieces. The trade unions and alliances of social organisations must reach out across their borders to make agreements to defend migrants and to take action to tackle these issues together.
The Nigeria Labour Congress was the first to extend its hand across borders. The May 2026 letter[24] by the Nigeria Labour Congress to COSATU urged the federation to take mass action against xenophobia. The Nigerian comrades continued to give COSATU a solid lesson in working class solidarity, "Comrades, we remind you that the trade union movement in Africa was forged in the crucible of solidarity, from the anti-apartheid struggle that we in the Nigeria Labour Congress supported with our dues and our voices, to the fight against structural adjustment. Fresh in our minds are some of the faces of the many South Africans that were with us in our universities as fellow students on the sponsorship of the government, and whom we provided belongingness and solidarity. We cannot abandon that history. We cannot claim to fight for the working class while allowing a section of that class to be hunted like wild animals". In addition, the Congress called for compensation for those who lost loved ones and for workers. They invoked the slogan: An injury to one is an injury to all. This demand must be fully supported by the movement against xenophobia. They make the important call on COSATU to join them in organising a Pan-African labour response and they put forward a concrete proposal for an emergency meeting to jointly draft mechanisms for protecting migrant workers across borders. Interestingly, the statement by the federations did not mention this letter or request at all, they have no shame.
Full support for all genuine steps and actions, including at the diplomatic level, against the role of the South African state in enabling xenophobia and undermining the human rights of migrants.
Full democratic rights for all residents who want it, especially those with long term stays in the country. An identity document must never again be a dompas for anyone on South African soil.
For a relentless war on tribalism and every type of ethnic mobilisation against the unity of the class – conducted by the working class itself, settling its own accounts with the reaction in its midst.
H. The question of working class power
No confidence in or support for the GNU and its alliance partners – the government of big capital, austerity and the enablers of xenophobia and Zionist infiltration.
Break the unions from national chauvinism, from cooperating with the capitalists and from supporting the GNU and capitalist parties. For the political independence of all working class organisations.
For a united front of all working class organisations, big and small, uniting the employed and unemployed, South African and migrant, with explicit opposition to xenophobia as the precondition of participation; marching separately, striking together, each retaining full freedom of criticism. And, to fight for the demands of the working class and for socialism.
For workers councils and forums, community and street committees – the organs of struggle today will become the organs of power tomorrow.
For a workers government, resting on these organs – the only government that can end the misery on which xenophobia feeds, because it is the only government not owned by those who profit from that misery. Forward to the socialist revolution in Southern Africa, as a step in the socialist revolution of the African continent and the world.
X. Conclusion
Every thread of this contribution traces back to a single point, and it is the reality the xenophobic pogromists and the government alike are determined to obscure: who benefits? The worker in Thokoza whose wage is undercut does not benefit from the raid that cheapens his undocumented workmate further – the boss does. The resident of Hillbrow terrorised on 30 June does not benefit from the R600 million deployment that guarded the shopping centres – big capital does. The unemployed youth in the amabutho's wake will not benefit from any xenophobic councillor that might be elected in November – the petty-bourgeois municipal councillor will. And the ruling class of this country benefits most of all, for as long as the poor attack the poorer, it is not held accountable.
The historical experience of our movement teaches one lesson with perfect consistency; the migrant worker has never been the enemy of the local worker's wage – only the instrument by which that wage is attacked. The restoration of his or her rights has always been the restoration of the whole class's power. The organisations surveyed in this contribution – from The Campaign's analysis to the Freedom Park Protocol, from the Thembelihle patrols to the pamphlets carried into the workplaces – have begun, each from its own abilities, to act on that lesson. What the hour demands is that these beginnings be united around a unified program that names both the enemy and the goal; against the pogroms and the government that enabled it; against the parties of the reaction looking towards its local elections harvest; for the unity of the class across every border drawn to divide it; for a workers government and the socialist reconstruction of South Africa and the region. The xenophobic movement offers the masses a reign of terror, the working class organisations offer them a future. No to xenophobia – forward to the socialist revolution!
Notes
Campaign to Scrap the Labour Law Amendment Bill. (2/07/26). Notes on the xenophobia outbreaks (for discussion). Special meeting of 2 July 2026.
Lehulere, O. (2008). The xenophobia outbreak in South Africa: Strategic questions facing the new social movements. LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal. Retrieved 11/07/26, from https://links.org.au/xenophobia-outbreak-south-africa-strategic-questions-facing-new-social-movements
V. I. Lenin, "The International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart," Proletary, No. 17, 20 October 1907, in Collected Works, 4th English Edition (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1972), vol. 13, pp. 75–81. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1907/oct/20.htm
V. I. Lenin, "Capitalism and Workers' Immigration," Za Pravdu, No. 22, 29 October 1913, in Collected Works, 4th English Edition (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977), vol. 19, pp. 454–457. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/oct/29.htm
Second International. (1907). Immigration and Emigration of Workers [Resolution of the Seventh Congress of the Second International, Stuttgart, 18–24 August 1907]. In Taber, M. (Ed.), Under the Socialist Banner: Resolutions of the Second International, 1889–1912. Marxists.org. Retrieved 11/07/26, from https://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/second-international-resolutions-book/ch07.htm
Karl Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt, 9 April 1870, in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2010), vol. 43, pp. 471–476; also in Selected Correspondence (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), pp. 220–224. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1870/letters/70_04_09.htm
Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, adopted by the Fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, 10 July 1918. Full English text available via the Marxists Internet Archive, https://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/constitution/1918/, and Wikisource, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1918_Constitution_(Fundamental_Law)_of_the_RSFSR
Lehulere, O. (2008). The xenophobia outbreak in South Africa: Strategic questions facing the new social movements. LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal. Retrieved 11/07/26, from https://links.org.au/xenophobia-outbreak-south-africa-strategic-questions-facing-new-social-movements
In the classical Marxist tradition, the Second International actually stood for immigration and emigration restrictions on strike-breakers and migrant workers with contracts and arrangements that prevented them from freely selling their labour power.
Campaign to Scrap the Labour Law Amendment Bill, "Notes on the Xenophobia Outbreaks" (for discussion), internal discussion document, 2 July 2026.
In a very innovative approach, the Simunye Workers Forum operates without officials and office-bearers in order to avoid bureaucritisation and careerism.
Phantsi Capitalism! Special edition on xenophobia in the workplace. 9/07/26. Retrieved on 22/07/26, from https://www.cwao.org.za/news-article.asp?ID=722
Phantsi Capitalism! Down with xenophobia – Part two. 14/07/26. Retrieved on 22/07/26, from https://www.cwao.org.za/news-article.asp?ID=723
David Hundeyin, https://x.com/DavidHundeyin/status/2077756734454526182
Newsday, citing IEC-based analysis, puts Moshal's total donations across all parties since 2021/22 at roughly R103 million, with ActionSA's specific share at 'at least R37 million'. The point is that this is very significant financing.
He is the founder and leading figure of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG). This is about the open letter he wrote to Trump to elicit his help to break the Western Cape from the country, https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/cape-independence-group-trump-to-government-referendum/
This point was strongly emphasised by the Statement on the Health and Human Cost of South Africa's Mass Displacement and Deportation of Migrants, issued by the Healthcare Workers Against Xenophobia, dated 13 July 2026 and endorsed by 30 organisations.
CAJ News Africa, "ECOWAS takes united stand against xenophobia in South Africa," 20 July 2026. https://cajnewsafrica.com/2026/07/20/ecowas-takes-united-stand-against-xenophobia-in-south-africa/
The statement can be found on the website of the federations. Here is the link to COSATU's posting: https://mediadon.co.za/organised-labour-statement-on-migration-and-south-africas-economic-crisis/
South African Communist Party. South African left forces convene the Conference of the Left to build working‑class unity. [Statement]. 19 May 2026. Retrieved on 20 July 2026, from https://sacp.org.za/content/south-african-left-forces-convene-conference-left-build-working-class-unity
Declaration of the Conference of the Left, adopted on Sunday 31 May 2026. Retrieved on 20/07/2026, from https://www.sacp.org.za/content/declaration-conference-left
Pithouse, R. The SACP's Conference of the Left. Zabalaza for Socialism. 22 May 2026. Retrieved on 20/07/2026, from https://zabalaza4socialism.org.za/2026/05/22/the-sacps-conference-of-the-left/
Reported in RCIT no. 618, read at: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/south-korea-hd-hyundai-heavy-industries-migrant-workers-joint-action/
The letter was reported on by BusinessDay Nigeria. The article can be accessed here: https://businessday.ng/news/article/xenophobia-nlc-writes-south-african-counterparts-to-halt-attacks/
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