COSATU’s Responses to Xenophobia

Mondli Hlatshwayo

University of Johannesburg, Centre for Sociological Research

Part I: Executive Summary
1. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is an essential part of South African civil society because it is has the largest representation of organised workers and also a history of struggle against apartheid in the workplace and the townships. The democratic dispensation and post-apartheid era pose political and organisational challenges for COSATU and its affiliates. Besides a necessity to organise vulnerable workers in the “formal” and “informal” economy, it also has to address the question of xenophobia and issues pertaining to the rights of migrant workers. Migrant workers also form part of the category of vulnerable workers in the “formal” and “informal” economy.

2. The research findings demonstrate that certain COSATU’s provincial structures, through defending the human rights of migrants, played an important role in providing humanitarian aid to victims of xenophobia in May last year. The challenge is that COSATU and its affiliates did not have a co-ordinated intervention during the xenophobic attacks last years. This would have assisted in pushing back the frontiers of xenophobia. With all its limitations, the federation and its affiliates also appealed to its members and the society at large to defend the human rights of migrants. Despite the International Trade Union Confederation – African Regional Organisation (ICFTU-AFRO) report which indicates that unions are duty bound to organize migrants and safeguard their rights and interests , COSATU has not developed a strategy for organising migrants . On a positive note, the recent COSATU Congress Resolution on xenophobia opens space for developing a platform for protecting the rights of migrants and migrant workers. This research has also revealed that there are individual shop stewards and organisers who are acting as key defenders of the rights of migrants workers. They are driven by the spirit of international solidarity which is one of the founding principles of COSATU. It is the duty of COSATU as a federation to generalise the good deeds of these individuals. This would be part of entrenching its principle of international solidarity “within the South African borders”.