Please read the statement below and fill out the details should you wish for your organisation to publicly endorse the statement and campaign: National Campaign Launched to Confront Xenophobia, Defend Unity and Redirect Anger Against the Real Causes of the Crisis

Community organisations, trade unions, civil society formations and concerned members of the public draw the line against xenophobia, scapegoating and division

For immediate release: 13 June 2026

Following a public online mass meeting held on Tuesday, 9 June 2026, attended by more than 300 people representing a wide range of organisations, social movements, trade unions, community formations, activists and concerned members of the public, a national campaign has been initiated to confront the rising tide of xenophobia, Afrophobia, ethnic chauvinism, right-wing reaction and organised hate in South Africa.

The meeting was convened in response to escalating threats against migrants and vulnerable communities, including threats of coordinated action leading up to, on and after 30 June by right-wing and xenophobic formations. Participants expressed deep concern at the growth of organised street intimidation, online hate campaigns, vigilante activity and the increasing normalisation of hateful anti-migrant politics in public discourse.

This campaign emerges from the urgent necessity to confront xenophobia, Afrophobia, ethnic chauvinism, reaction and fascist intimidation; to defend working-class unity; and to ensure that the legitimate anger of our communities is directed not against migrants and the poor, but against the political and economic elites responsible for this crisis.

South Africa’s social crisis has reached breaking point. Mass unemployment, collapsing services, corruption, hunger, crime, unaffordable transport and deepening insecurity have produced legitimate anger across working-class and poor communities. But this crisis was not created by migrants, refugees or poor people trying to survive. It was produced by those with power over society: political elites, big business, corrupt officials, profiteers and an economic system that has abandoned millions to poverty, unemployment and despair.

Xenophobia, Afrophobia, ethnic chauvinism and vigilante politics offer no way out. They will not create jobs, reopen factories, fix municipalities, end austerity or hold the powerful to account. Once scapegoating is unleashed, it does not stop at the border; it turns neighbour against neighbour, worker against worker, poor against poor. This campaign is therefore rooted in the urgent need to organise the anger of communities away from division and toward the real causes of the crisis.

Supporting and endorsing organisations unite under this campaign on the basis of the following principles:

1. We reject xenophobia, Afrophobia, racism, tribalism, ethnic chauvinism and all forms of scapegoating. No community can be liberated by turning on another oppressed community. No worker can advance by attacking another worker.

2. We defend the unity of all who are exploited, impoverished and excluded under the current system. South African workers, migrant workers, unemployed people, informal traders, shack dwellers, women, youth, students and poor communities have a common interest in fighting the unjust conditions imposed on them.

3. We recognise the legitimate anger of working-class and poor communities. People are right to be angry about unemployment, crime, corruption, hunger, collapsing services and the cost of living. But that anger must be directed at the real causes of the crisis and at those who hold political and economic power over society, not at vulnerable people with the least power.

4. We oppose vigilante violence, intimidation and fascist methods. There is nothing democratic, progressive or community-minded about pulling children out of schools, blocking people from clinics, threatening informal traders, attacking migrants or terrorising communities.

5. We fight for jobs, services, dignity and justice for all. The answer to the crisis is not deportation, scapegoating or street thuggery. The answer is decent work, functioning municipalities, quality public services, an end to austerity, accountability for corruption, investment in communities, and an economy that serves people before profit.

6. We build solidarity from below. Our strength lies in organised communities, workplaces, campuses, faith formations, social movements, trade unions, migrant organisations, youth formations, civics and all democratic forces acting together.

Workers, communities, faith organisations, students, youth formations, social movements, trade unions, migrant organisations, civics and all democratic forces are called on to join this campaign and help build local structures of solidarity, safety, political education and collective action.

Where vulnerable communities are threatened, solidarity must become practical. Where hatred is spread, it must be answered with truth and organisation. Where vigilante violence is normalised, democratic forces must respond with disciplined, peaceful and collective action.

Public leaders and the media must stop legitimising xenophobic narratives and vigilante politics as “community activism”. Public debate must be grounded in facts, accountability and human dignity, with space given to migrant organisations, working-class formations, community movements, trade unions and democratic organisations of the poor who have long been organising and fighting for real solutions to unemployment, poverty, corruption, collapsing services and social decay.

The attempts made by formations such as March and March, Operation Dudula, and political parties and actors including ActionSA, the MKP and the Patriotic Alliance, to present xenophobic scapegoating as the commanding voice of communities is entirely dishonest. These forces do not speak for the millions of workers, unemployed people, migrants, youth, women, informal traders, shack dwellers and poor communities struggling every day for jobs, land, housing, services, safety and dignity. 

Throughout June and beyond, people across South Africa are called on to demonstrate, organise, march, hold community meetings, conduct political education, build local solidarity structures and take visible action against xenophobia, Afrophobia, ethnic chauvinism, fascist intimidation, austerity, unemployment and collapsing public services.

This campaign is a call to draw the line against division, against fear, and against the working class and poor being turned against themselves while those responsible for the crisis remain untouched.

The answer to division is solidarity. The answer to fear is organisation. Solidarity is our defence. Unity is our power.

Siyafana Sonke!