Human Rights are Under Attack by the Johannesburg ANC

31 October 2025
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Human Rights are Under Attack by the Johannesburg ANC

South Africa is in a deep and worsening social crisis. There is mass unemployment, systemic impoverishment, widespread hunger and terrifying levels of violence. Right-wing forces are increasingly scapegoating migrants and the poor – especially street traders and shack dwellers – for the crisis. At the same time they are also targeting the human rights organisations that support vulnerable people to access the law.

These right-wing forces include outright fascists in military uniform who openly engage in thuggery on the streets. They also include a growing number of political parties. There are also reckless and dangerous right-wing populists within the ANC. The situation in the ANC in Gauteng in general and Johannesburg in particular is cause for very serious concern.

On the 5th of September we had to take a clear and strong position against Panyazi Lesufi, the ANC Premier of Gauteng, for his extreme xenophobic and anti-poor positions including his threat to destroy poor people’s homes at 2:00 am. Now we have to take an equally strong position against Dada Morero, the ANC Mayor of Johannesburg.

Following Lesufi’s lead Morero has launched an illegal and brutal attack on the poor. While Lesufi promised to launch illegal and brutal attacks on shack dwellers Morero is targeting street traders in the name of ‘cleaning’ and ‘reclaiming’ the city.

Of course we all want the city to be clean and we all want it to be safe. However human beings are not dirt and an attack on poor people making a living as traders in the city – which courts have repeatedly confirmed to be legal – is just an act of cruelty to deflect attention from the failures of the ANC and its coalition partners to govern Johannesburg properly. They are trying to scapegoat the poor to distract people from their own corruption, arrogance and incompetence – to distract people from their own failure.

As the ANC in Johannesburg faces devastation in the coming local government elections its leaders are becoming desperate and their turn to unlawful and violent forms of right-wing cruelty are escalating. This situation has been worsened by the rush to drive the poor out of the city before the G20 meeting in late November. Morero’s campaign is not just cruel. It is also unlawful.

Street traders, like everyone else, have a right to use the courts to ensure that they are not treated as if they are beneath the law. Instead of accepting this Morero and the Johannesburg ANC have launched an attack on their pro bono human rights lawyers, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri).

In July when Seri came under attack from the fascists in Operation Dudula we defended Seri in principle and in practice. We confronted them in the streets. It is extremely dangerous to allow fascists to threaten human rights organisations in the way that Operation Dudula has done. It is even more dangerous when the right-wing forces in the ANC do the same.

We are disturbed to see that the ANC in Johannesburg is now joining this attack on human rights and is mobilising its supporters to come to the South Gauteng High Court today to oppose what they call ‘the Seri court case’. Seri will be representing street traders in their approach to the court to ensure that their rights, guaranteed in law, are protected from Morero’s ongoing attack.

It is disturbing that Morero as the mayor of Johannesburg has been leading an attack against Seri on his personal social media. It is deeply disturbing to hear that outside the court the ANC will be joined by Operation Dudula, an outright fascist organisation, and March on March, an extreme right-wing xenophobic organisation. It is true that neither Dudula nor March on March can mobilise more than a few people. However these organisations are able to engage in serious intimidation, including death threats, and appalling forms of online abuse, including threats of murder and rape. They also get massive media coverage and are able to spread their poison through the media.

Seri is the leading pro bono law firm in the country, which has a brave record of supporting the poor and other vulnerable people to defend their rights in the courts. They operate according to the Constitution of the country, a Constitution that the ANC played a leading role in designing and adopting. For the Johannesburg ANC to join the attack on Seri, which has been driven by fascist right-wing mobs on the streets and bot-driven campaigns online, is disgraceful.

Like all people of good conscience, we support the progressive people in the ANC when they stand for the rights of Palestinians. The ANC has correctly won global respect for its positions in support of Palestine and for giving leadership to a growing collective position in support of Palestine by countries across the Global South. We acknowledge that there are still some principled and courageous people in the organisation.

However, it is disgraceful that the Johannesburg region of the ANC is allowed to attack the poor, openly violate human rights and mobilise its remaining supporters against the leading human rights organisation in the country. It is disgraceful that they have not condemned Operation Dudula and that they will allow a fascist and openly criminal organisation to join their members outside the court today.

The South African government is hosting the G20 summit under the slogan “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”. If the world sees ANC supporters standing together with the fascists of Operation Dudula to attack a human rights organisation and defend an unlawful attack on the poor neither that slogan nor the South African government’s hosting of this important event will have any credibility. This image of crude hypocrisy will be a gift to the forces that oppose South Africa’s position of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Johannesburg is not falling apart because poor people are doing what they can to find a place to live and a livelihood. The city is not falling apart because of migrants. All the great cities of the world are home to migrants from all over the world. People trade in the streets in many of the great cities of the world. We need to stop being so small-minded, stop being so cruel, and focus on the real reasons for the crisis in Johannesburg. The deeply corrupt, cynical and increasingly right-wing ANC structures in the city and the province are a central cause of the crisis in Johannesburg.

Lesufi and Morero must be removed from office as a matter of urgency and the province and the City must cease their attacks on human rights and human rights organisations.

We are working to build a united front against the attacks on human rights and human rights organisations by Lesufi and Morero, backed by the general collapse into right-wing populism by the ANC in Gauteng and Johannesburg. We invite all progressive organisations and all people of good conscience to join us.

Contact:

Thapelo Mohapi 084 576 5117
Mqapheli Bonono 073 067 3274
Snenhlanhla Mncanyana 073 832 3331
S’bu Zikode 083 547 0474