Reckoning with Operation Dudula — a visceral moment in SA we cannot afford to meet with silence

Daily Maverick

23-07-2025

A day before Mandela Day on 18 July – one of the many days in our country that symbolises the struggle for democracy, freedom and justice – we were forced to reckon with a painful reality: there is an attempt to threaten the vision of a just and equitable country for all who live in it and which many anti-apartheid activists fought and died for.
On 17 July, Operation Dudula and its supporters marched to the Socio-Economic Rights Institute South Africa (Seri) offices in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, calling the nonprofit human rights organisation 'unpatriotic' for protecting the constitutional rights of foreign nationals. Movements like Equal Education, Abahlali baseMjondolo, and others, stood in solidarity with Seri outside of its offices as they anticipated receiving the marchers' memorandum.
According to Seri's statement on 18 July, the protest emanated from the Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia and Others v Operation Dudula and Others matter which was heard by the High Court in Johannesburg on 10 and 11 June 2025. This case, brought on behalf of Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, the South African Informal Traders Forum, the Inner City Federation and Abahlali BaseMjondolo, challenged the xenophobic and racist speech and conduct of Operation Dudula. Judgment was reserved.
The Equality Collective has witnessed Seri's support to marginalised communities, South Africans and migrants alike, both inside and outside the courtroom. We laude their unwavering protection of migrants' constitutional rights, and as an organisation committed to our country's democratic and constitutional principles of a just and equitable society for all who live in it, we stand in deep solidarity with Seri in this confronting moment.
The same Constitution that serves as a foundation for Seri's work affords Operation Dudula and its supporters the right to protest. We applaud Seri's decision to meet Operation Dudula outside its offices, as it is, in fact, healthy and constructive to engage with harmful, ill-informed xenophobic narratives that make their way into public discourse.
Indeed, the socioeconomic crisis in South Africa continues to deepen and perpetuate the inequalities that leave the poor, black majority of this country living undignified lives. More than half of households in South Africa live below the upper-bound poverty line, and a quarter live below the food poverty line. Our employment rate rose to a worrying 32.9% in quarter one of 2025, among the highest in the world, with a youth unemployment rate of 46.1%, in which young women in particular are locked out of the formal economy. Women and children are raped and killed at alarming rates, with one rape reported every 12 minutes. These statistics provide a harrowing snapshot of the deeper systemic social justice issues plaguing our country.
This should undoubtedly infuriate us, and drive us to take action.
Directing this anger at civil society organisations like Seri or the Helen Suzman Foundation, and Chapter 9 institutions like the South African Human Rights Commission, is counterproductive and attempts to undermine the very constitutional rights – which includes the rights of documented or undocumented migrants living in South Africa – that serve as tools to tackle poverty and inequality.
The actions of Operation Dudula and its supporters have been dubious since its inception. Its continuous unconstitutional threats, attacks and intimidation towards foreign nationals has been widely reported in the media. In a recent gut-wrenching article published by GroundUp on 16 July this year, it was reported that Operation Dudula, and some complicit nurses, denied new mothers, who were foreign nationals, access to vaccines for their newborn children at Jeppe Clinic in Johannesburg.
This is, of course, a human rights violation. And it is also an indication of a much deeper issue – the misguided anger and frustration of South African people living in a country where their own dignity and humanity is undermined.
Foreign nationals do not have the power or mandate to fix the unemployment crisis, improve access to dignified healthcare services, provide basic services like water and electricity, increase social support, and ultimately restore dignity to the lives of people living in South Africa. Even if we deported all migrants tomorrow, we would still be sitting with unethical political leadership far removed from its people, an austerity budget, a dysfunctional healthcare system, derelict infrastructure, an unemployment rate among the highest in the world and a gender-based violence rate that should keep us up at night.
In fact, according to a World Bank study in 2018, looking at the period between 1996 and 2011, it found that migrants in South Africa had a positive impact on employment and wages for locals, with each immigrant worker generating about two jobs for South African citizens. Rather than creating jobs, deporting the approximately 2.4 million migrants who live in our country would mean that millions of South Africans would lose their income.
So, how do we direct and leverage our collective anger in a way that will build collective power from below, and hold the state accountable to its constitutional mandate – a dignified standard of living for everyone?
Now is the time for every person living in South Africa to get behind a collective agenda to rebuild a functional and capable state that ensures every person living in South Africa can lead a dignified life. This entails mending broken relationships, marred by deep distrust, between the state and its people, and thinking creatively about how we can get business, government, traditional leaders, religious institutions, civil society and communities actively playing their part in this shared vision.
As civil society, we cannot afford to watch from the sidelines when violence is perpetuated against migrants and organisations that hold the line on a just and inclusive society. The solidarity from social movements like Equal Education and Abahlali baseMjondolo on 17 July was a powerful demonstration of the principled and unified civil society action we strive for. It troubled the notion that middle-class NGOs are disconnected from the realities of communities and only challenge xenophobia from their comfortable offices or in the courtrooms.
The time for 'divide and conquer' in all its forms is long gone.
Today, migrants are the target, tomorrow, it's the next easy target – all while the conditions that infuriate us continue to worsen. The only way to build real power for underserved and marginalised communities is to unite in our numbers, under the banner of a country, continent and world committed to equity, justice and love for all. DM