Statement by WASP

WASP strongly condemns the rise in xenophobia in South Africa and calls for organised, working class-led unity to oppose the scapegoating of migrants for the failures of the capitalist system.

This year has seen a dramatic increase in right-wing forces drumming up xenophobic divisions and violence in South Africa. Emboldened by state-sanctioned attacks on migrants such as the ANC government’s refusal to renew the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits and a rightward shift in the City of Johannesburg government, high-profile politicians like Herman Mashaba of ActionSA, Gayton McKenzie of the Patriotic Alliance, and Julius Malema of the EFF have launched several public stunts to throw suspicion upon and attack migrants. With reckless cynicism, these pro-capitalist politicians try to create artificial relevance for their platforms that hold no hope for any working class and poor people regardless of country of birth. 

The capitalist government’s inability to deal with sky-rocketing unemployment is clear as we face the crisis of an economic recession worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. Politicians’ opportunism to scapegoat migrants has fuelled the rise of dangerous vigilante groups, such as Operation Dudula and #PutSouthAfricansFirst, who are dead-set on expelling vulnerable migrants from their communities through intimidation and violence. The criminal role of the state in fuelling these gangs was exposed when the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) prohibited a peaceful march against xenophobia by working class formations organised under Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX) planned for 21 March. After allowing Operation Dudula to march and intimidate where they please, the JMPD claimed it was unsafe for KAAX to march for everyone’s human rights on Human Rights Day. 

Targeting the most oppressed 

Since 1994, several episodes of heightened xenophobic attacks have taken place; over 60 people died during the horrific attacks in 2008. Informal traders and shop owners are regular victims of such violence. But why do people continue to migrate to South Africa despite the increasing threat of violence and abuse?

While most migration is internal as people move from rural areas to cities and towns within the same country, international migration within Africa has increased over the last 15 years. Migrants make up about 5% of South Africa’s population. Desperate circumstances many migrants experience make them easy targets for exploitation. Since Apartheid, capitalists have benefited from cheap migrant labour. People become migrants because they are forced to flee war, oppression, unsustainable economic situations, hunger, and violence. In Zimbabwe for example, wages are extremely low and 93% of people cannot secure wage labour. 

War, such as the ongoing wars in the DRC and Ethiopia, has led to increased migration as people flee from their homes. Violence has displaced over 2.5 million people in the Sahel region in the past decade. Armed conflict has taken place in at least 15 African countries and will continue because of activity from extremists such as Boko Haram in the Sahel region and Al-Shabab in Mozambique, in addition to instability caused by coup d’états.

The effects of climate change, fuelled by destructive capitalist practices, have made small-scale farming and raising livestock across different regions undergoing drought and desertification impossible for many on the continent. Just like the climate crisis, the condemning of a rich continent to poverty, political crises and war is the work of the capitalist system, with its colonial roots – working class and poor people across Africa need to fight together to change this.

Xenophobia a legacy of apartheid and colonialism

Apartheid ended 28 years ago, however, the transition to democracy has not delivered improved standards of living for most people. Having diverted the struggle from pulling apartheid out along with its capitalist roots, the ANC in power has doubled down on sustaining capitalism, applying neoliberal policies that have  sustained poverty and inequality – with the richest 1% now owning 50% of the total wealth in SA. 

The government claims that it has to cut spending on public services, including education and healthcare, in order to escape the debt crisis. Budget cuts in social services disproportionately affect black women, as women are overburdened with care and domestic responsibilities in society. 

It is the working class and poor who carry the consequences of corruption and austerity. Nearly half of working people are unemployed while funds allocated to job creation are being cut. Education budgets are slashed, continuing the apartheid legacy maintaining a low-skilled, cheap supply of labour for bosses to exploit, while the president boasts about preparing for the so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Currently, over 800 healthcare workers are facing retrenchments at Baragwanath Hospital – just a drop in the bucket of healthcare cuts the ANC government is enacting during a pandemic. The capitalist system ensures stiff competition for jobs and resources within the working class. 

Right wing politicians propel the myth that migrants steal jobs while bosses are slashing jobs, retrenching workers and shutting down factories. This dangerous narrative has led to repeated attacks ‌on migrants, showcasing a dangerous trend of increasing violence.

Politicians and vigilante groups stoking the flames

Aside from the ANC’s political choice to deprive people in South Africa of the resources they desperately need, it is concerning to see more parties shifting to right-wing politics. Populists like Operation Dudula’s Nhlanhla Lux dupe people into fighting one another. Lux secured his status during the July 2021 unrest when he took part in protecting Maponya Mall in Soweto. Their desire to eliminate ‌migrants in South Africa, cloaking their xenophobia in promises to “rid South Africa of undesireables and bring about unity for Black South Africans”, has since been revealed. 

EFF leader Julius Malema has also recently cemented the EFF’s nationalist trajectory by jumping on the anti-immigrant bandwagon. His recent publicised visits to businesses to investigate the ratio of foreign-born to local employees and demands to “hire locals” are simply fanning the flames of working class division for political gain. This contradicts claims during the party’s 2019 manifesto launch that “the resources of Africa should benefit Africans”, and his critique of SA locals’ xenophobic attacks against migrant vendors saying “you do not own South Africa”. Such an arbitrary stance reflects the party’s fundamental grounding in populist politics as opposed to a solid revolutionary programme. 

Billionaire Rob Hersov has allegedly contributed significantly to a host of anti-migrant groups, including Operation Dudula, ActionSA and maintains strong political ties with the PA. The investment of billionaire capital in these ventures is further confirmation that dividing the working class serves only to increase the profits enjoyed by the elite.

The extreme example of farm workers from Lesotho and Zimbabwe brutally attacking each other in Robertson, Western Cape, on 18 March serves as a vivid reminder of why the working class must reject the divide-and-rule narrative from the bosses’ class. 

The capitalist economy thrives on pitting workers against one another. The legacy of the Apartheid regime’s strategy to entrench tribalism by separating workers along linguistic lines still fuels tribalist violence today. Bosses weaponise the infighting amongst workers and unemployment to continue to drive down wages and working conditions, preying on the desperation of workers trying to eke out a survival while fearing for their lives. Ultimately, this shameless use of class warfare is to the detriment of all workers, regardless of country of birth.

Mass struggle against division and destruction

The imperialist world order is destroying our planet and the livelihoods of all who live on it. The only force capable of stopping this destruction is a united working class. Xenophobia is an obstacle to that much-needed unity and we cannot afford to give even a millimetre to its divisive ideology. The answer is instead to fight together in uncompromising, principled working class unity against racism and xenophobia, for equal pay for equal work, living wages, decent working conditions, housing, health care, education and services for ALL. In the end, it must be a fight to overthrow capitalism and replace it with a fully democratic, socialist society in which all who work benefit from it.

We call on all working class formations to oppose anti-working class ‘movements’ like Operation Dudula and #PutSouthAfricansFirst and the politicians and parties selling false solutions around labour quotas, non-renewal of permits, and ‘workplace inspections’. Workers and communities must organise actions like pickets, protests and even strikes to pressure the ANC government to put an end to this dehumanising situation that migrants in South Africa face. We must further demand a mass investment in public sector jobs that can build energy and water efficient housing and factories; a quality, universal and free healthcare system; and provide safe, affordable, efficient and green public transport for everyone. All people who live, work and contribute to South Africa should have legal status to do so without fear – only when we unite as working class people can we defeat the real reasons for unemployment, poverty, crime, substance abuse, etc., and build a thriving society.

As the ruling parties show their true colours, and follow the global trend of becoming more nationalist and right-wing in the Age of Disorder, it is clear the working class needs a party of its own – a real opposition to the ANC, EFF, DA. As WASP we urge all progressive working class formations, including that of communities and the youth, to join us in campaigning in the Working Class Summit for a mass workers’ party, democratically organised on a socialist programme so the wealth of this world can be used to address the needs of the majority and the planet.

We say

• Forward to a united front of working class formations to fight against the rising tide of xenophobia! Build Kopanang Africa (KAAX) into a vehicle of struggle to fight for the rights of all working class migrants in South Africa.
• No more temporary measures: permanent residency for all migrants who have made a life in South Africa. Amnesty for all undocumented migrants.
• No retrenchments or job losses! Build workplace committees to defend against any migrant workers losing their jobs due to xenophobic pressures from the state or vigilante groups. 
• Organised labour must stand in solidarity with migrant workers, organise them into unions, and defend their right to live and work in South Africa.
• Fight for a living wage of R15 000 across all sectors for all workers.
• Organise a common struggle against racism, the scapegoating of refugees and widening divisions.
• No school exclusions–learners, caregivers, teachers should organise and defend every learner’s right to continue schooling, regardless of legal status.
• No deportations or refugee prisons!
• Jobs, housing, and welfare for all — free the resources for this by nationalising big business and the banks under democratic working class control and management.
• Defend the right to asylum–permanent residence for everyone forced to flee persecution, oppression and war.
• Join in international solidarity with the struggles of migrants across the world facing the same oppressive circumstances under the imperialist, capitalist system—tear down the walls of the US, Fortress Europe, etc.
• Campaign for a mass workers’ party through the Working Class Summit as a real opposition to the ruling parties. Under its banner, the working class can unite across nationalities, race, gender, etc. and democratically organise the struggle for a socialist federation of Southern Africa.
• Support the building of mass, international movement to unite the working masses and poor to overthrow the oppressive regimes in the neo-colonial world, capitalism and imperialism.
• For a democratic and socialist South Africa, in a voluntary democratic and socialist federation of Southern Africa.
• Global struggle against the plunder and divide-and-rule of capitalism and imperialism — for a socialist world of freedom and equality.