Victory Against Operation Dudula in the High Court!

5 November 2025
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Victory Against Operation Dudula in the High Court!

On 27 July our movement confronted and humiliated Operation Dudula on the streets of Johannesburg. Yesterday, acting with others, we defeated them in the Gauteng High Court. The Gauteng High Court ruled that Operation Dudula’s conduct is unlawful, unconstitutional and xenophobic. The court interdicted Dudula and its members from harassing, intimidating or assaulting anyone they identify as foreign, and from blocking access to schools, hospitals or workplaces.

This follows the ruling on Monday ordering the City of Johannesburg to verify, register and allocate trading spaces for street traders who had been unlawfully removed from the inner city. Both victories were won by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) acting on behalf of our movement, as well as other organisations. The organisations represented by SERI in these two cases included the South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF), the Inner City Federation (ICF), and Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX).

Operation Dudula and March on March have repeatedly claimed that they are acting to enforce the law. We have always known this is not true but the media have often openly or tacitly supported Operation Dudula – or just allowed them to lie to the public without challenging them – leading to confusion among the general public. Today the court was clear: Operation Dudula are not enforcing the law — they are breaking it.

The ruling raises serious questions about the conduct of the police, private security firms, the government, the ANC, hospital and clinic management and health workers’ unions who have all allowed Operation Dudula to openly block access to hospitals and clinics.

We need to be clear. Operation Dudula is not, as some in the media have called it a ‘civil society organisation’. It is a militarised fascist organisation. Its actions have brought cruelty, violence, fear and division to poor communities. We note with serious concern that on Monday Operation Dudula was joined outside the court by the MK Party, the Patriotic Alliance and members of the Johannesburg ANC. It is very disturbing that the ANC in Johannesburg has now gone beyond right-wing populism and allied itself with outright fascist forces. It is very disturbing that there has been no condemnation of this from the national leadership of the ANC who claim that when they host the G20 meeting later this month they will be doing so in the name of “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”.

The attacks on SERI by Operation Dudula and their friends in the Johannesburg ANC along with MK, ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance are disgraceful. The ANC mayor of Johannesburg Dada Morero has directly participated in these attacks.

SERI is a progressive pro bono law firm that takes instruction from and represents oppressed and marginalised people — street traders, residents of shack settlements and others living in poverty, some of whom are migrants but most of whom are South Africans. To attack a law firm for representing poor clients is to attack the poor themselves. An attack on SERI is an attack on us. It is also to attack the Constitution and the rule of law. This means that Dada Morero is not fit to hold public office and must be immediately removed from his position.

Poor South Africans and migrants are being scapegoated for the failures of the state. The crisis in our hospitals is not caused by migrants seeking care — it is caused by austerity, mismanagement and massive corruption. The crisis of mass unemployment is not caused by migrants — it is the result of an economy built on extraction, casualisation and exclusion, an economy that has never fully broken with its colonial origins.

We must build a united front of all progressive forces against rising fascism — against Operation Dudula, March on March, and every organisation that uses violence, xenophobia and lies to divide the poor. We are in the process of working to build an anti-fascist coalition.

The struggle for democracy and dignity must be taken forward in communities, on the streets, in the courts and in the all spaces for public discussion. We need to build a powerful progressive bloc that can make clear the real causes of the mass suffering facing our people, show real ways to build a just and decent society, and organise the popular democratic power needed to move forward.

Contact:

Thapelo Mohapi 084 576 5117
Mqapheli Bonono 073 067 3274
Snenhlanhla Mncanyana 073 832 3331