Cosatu: balancing South African workers' Rights and xenophobia

South African workers are hurting.

We wake up every day to the same story: no jobs, no hope, no safety. In this climate, migration has become a flashpoint. 

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) believes we need two things at once: honest management of migration, and a total rejection of xenophobia. We cannot choose one and ignore the other. Both are about protecting the working class.

Let’s be blunt about where we stand. Unemployment is at 43.7%. For young people, it is over 60%. That means 12 million people are locked out of the economy. Two out of three young workers have never had a job.

Poverty scars our townships and rural areas. Inequality remains the highest in the world. A worker in Alexandra earns in a year what a CEO in Sandton earns before lunch.

Public resources are stretched to breaking point. Our hospitals have queues out the door. Our schools have broken toilets and 80 learners per class.

RDP housing lists are many years long. There is simply not enough to meet every need. When budgets are tight, we must spend every Rand to protect South Africans first. That is not hatred. It is responsibility.

At the same time, crime is out of control. Workers are hijacked going to work. Spaza shops are robbed daily. Our sisters and daughters are not safe walking home. Communities are angry, and that anger is real. But anger without a plan helps no one.

Migration is not new. It is as old as humanity. People have always moved to find food, safety and work. South Africa was built on migration.

For more than 100 years, men from Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia came to work in our mines. They lived in hostels. They died in rockfalls. Their wages built the mining industry. Their families back home survived on those remittances.

We must also remember that many of our borders are artificial. Colonial rulers drew lines on maps in Berlin in 1884. They split families, nations and trade routes. The Limpopo River is not a wall between enemies. It is a bridge between neighbours.

We appreciate the support we received from our neighbours during the liberation struggle. When apartheid jailed our leaders and banned our organisations, the Frontline States sheltered us. Mozambique paid for hosting the ANC with South African raids that killed civilians and destroyed the economy. Angola was invaded repeatedly. Botswana and Lesotho were raided. Their people bled for our freedom. South Africa honours that sacrifice. But hospitality cannot mean a free-for-all.

The past decade saw a massive rise in migration to South Africa. We understand why. People are fleeing failed states, economic collapse, and violence. When your government cannot provide jobs, electricity or human rights, you move. No one leaves home because it is easy. They leave because staying means starving.

But let us be honest: the scale is no longer sustainable. Our clinics in Musina are overwhelmed. Our township are overcrowded.

Our job market cannot absorb millions of new entrants when we cannot employ our own. South Africa has an obligation to prioritise its citizens, especially the youth, for scarce jobs and resources. That is what every government in the world does.

All countries are battling unmanaged migration, from the United States to Germany to Brazil. South Africa is not unique. But if we do not manage this crisis, it will explode. History has shown us that when people feel abandoned, xenophobic violence follows. We have seen it before. We condemn it without reservation. Attacking a fellow African creates no jobs. It does not build a single house.

• Rule of law for all: Every person in South Africa, local or foreign, must obey our Constitution and our laws. That includes labour laws, tax laws, by-laws and migration laws. If you commit crime, you must face the courts. If you are here illegally, the law must apply. No exceptions, no favours.
• Resource the state to enforce: We cannot speak of the rule of law while SAPS stations have no vans, Home Affairs offices have broken systems, and our borders have holes. Government must properly fund and capacitate SAPS, Home Affairs, the Border Management Authority and the SANDF. A state that cannot secure its territory or enforce its laws is failing its people.
• Jail the real culprits – exploitative employers: The biggest problem is not the undocumented worker. It is the employer who hires him to pay R80 a day, with no UIF, no safety gear, no rights. These bosses use desperation to break unions and undercut South African workers. They are the ones who must be raided, fined, and jailed. Exploitation of vulnerability must become a serious crime.
• Pass the Employment Services Amendment Bill: Parliament must urgently pass this Bill. It will place reasonable, sector-based limits on the number of migrant workers in a workplace. This is not a ban. It protects local jobs while still allowing critical skills we lack. It is rational labour market planning.
• Build Africa together: The long-term answer is not in South Africa alone. We need SADC and the African Union to drive joint industrialisation. Let us build factories in Bulawayo and Maseru. Let us fix rail from Maputo to Durban. Let us share energy from Cahora Bassa and the Grand Inga. When there are jobs in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mozambique, people will not need to flee. South Africa’s destiny is linked to the region. We rise together or we fall together.

Cosatu is a federation of the working class. Our members are South African and migrant. Our enemy is unemployment. Our enemy are those who steal. Our enemy is the employer who replaces permanent jobs with undocumented labour.

We need managed migration. We need borders and laws that are enforced. And we need to reject xenophobia.

Let us unite workers, not divide them. South Africa will not be built on hatred. It will be built on jobs, justice and solidarity.

Solly Phetoe is the General Secretary of Cosatu.

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