In July 2025, Johannesburg was the scene of a tense stand-off between two diametrically opposed political forces. A small group of Operation Dudula members, several of whom were clad in pseudo-military uniforms, had marched to the offices of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI), with the aim of disrupting its operations. SERI is a legal NGO that represents poor and marginalised groups. Masquerading as an organisation that cares about the poor, Operation Dudula espouses a local brand of Donald Trump’s xenophobic and anti-immigrant politics, which it propagates through threats, intimidation and violence.
Their attempt to storm the building was thwarted by a much larger group of people from poor communities, led by Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Inner-City Federation, and various anti-xenophobia and anti-racism organisations. In contrast to Operation Dudula, these movements have for many years organised and mobilised poor communities in struggles for housing, jobs and decent public services.
Preventing Operation Dudula from meeting its objectives represented an important victory for progressive forces. It has been buttressed by the recent High Court ruling that the organisation’s intimidation and violence against immigrants at public hospitals were unlawful.
Abahlali baseMjondolo has labelled Operation Dudula “a militarised, fascist organisation”. Indeed, it should be viewed as the shock troops of a larger, more dangerous movement of conservative and reactionary politics, which has taken root in South Africa’s political landscape, echoing experiences across the world.
Global turn to the right
Internationally, right-wing parties and authoritarian governments appear to be ascendant and consolidating their grip on power. Donald Trump heads the rogues gallery of the leaders of these formations, which includes Netanyahu, Modi, Farage, bin Salman, Le Pen, Milei, Kagame and so forth. Several of them are conservative populists who have mobilised mass support by portraying themselves as anti-establishment. They have opportunistically tapped into widespread discontent about declining living standards, widening inequality and the general precarity of life.
Central to their politics is the scapegoating of immigrants as the supposed cause of the problems faced by poor people in their countries. Aided by fascist groups, these leaders have whipped up anti-immigrant rhetoric and have implemented policies to limit immigration, especially from the Global South. In the United States, the Republican administration has unleashed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hound immigrants and deport them, while in Europe, draconian anti-immigrant laws are being enacted, not least now by the social democrats of the British Labour Party.
Populist right-wing movements are defined by a toxic cocktail of anti-democratic and anti-poor politics. Where they have achieved power, conservative parties have launched serious attacks on basic rights won by trade unions and women’s movements (such as minimum wages and abortion). Their authoritarianism is evident in the criminalising of dissent and protests and the curtailing of freedom of speech. Climate crisis denialism, anti-vaccine and conspiracy theories, and anti-woke hysteria are among the staples of their right-wing ideologies. They relish the propagation of various forms of hate: racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, anti-LGBTQI and anti-semitism. For them, the future is the past, where women were subordinate, Black oppression was celebrated, and democratic rights were enjoyed only by a minority.
On the global stage, they are ardent supporters of Israel’s genocide, while they turn a blind eye to the industrial-scale murders and famine in Sudan and the DRC. In fact, Western governments and corporations are often complicit in these heinous crimes against humanity: Black and Brown lives are disposable in their pursuit of power and profits.
These right-wing organisations refuse to acknowledge that the real cause of the protracted global crisis is the dominant neoliberal economic framework. This has been pursued for decades by most governments, often under the whip of the IMF and World Bank, representing the economic and political interests of global powers. Deindustrialisation, slashing of public services, high levels of unemployment (especially among young people), casualisation of labour, the privatisation of education, health and housing, and the degradation of the environment, these are all outcomes of austerity, privatisation and the deliberate hollowing out of the public sector.
All establishment parties, from the conservatives to liberals and social democrats, have contributed to these interconnected crises. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Tories spearheaded the attack on the public sector, with the aim of selling off critical public services to the private sector, with devastating consequences for health and transport. Under Tony Blair, the Labour Party since the 1990s has embraced key facets of Thatcherite policies. The current Starmer government is now indistinguishable from the Conservatives. In a generation, it has transformed from the electoral representative of the working class to a party of the rich. Disenchantment with the dominant parties has led to the far-right Reform Party of Nigel Farage gaining significant support and threatening to eclipse both the Tories and Labour in the next elections. Similar processes have been unfolding across the globe, as is evident in parts of Latin America and Africa.
Rising tide of conservatism in South Africa
Since the advent of democracy, South Africa has been celebrated as a beacon of democratic values, undergirded by what is deemed the most progressive constitution in the world. Yet, in the recent past, we have witnessed a sharp rise in conservative populism, echoing developments elsewhere in the world. Arguably, the conditions are ripe here for the growth of Trumpist politics, with no shortage of aspirant authoritarians desperate to mimic the success of their racist, sexual predator hero.
South Africa’s democracy is under serious threat. Failed economic policies have resulted in large-scale deindustrialisation, devastatingly high levels of unemployment and persistent inequality. Hunger, poverty and illness are endemic. Austerity and corruption have disabled the state, which can barely provide the most basic services to the majority of people. The constitution insists on socio-economic rights for all, but across the country, a growing number of people don’t have access to decent work, housing, health, water and education. Poor Black people remain locked into apartheid’s racial enclaves, where the social fabric of communities is systematically being ripped apart by grinding poverty, drug abuse, GBV and gangsterism. For the majority, there seems to be no escape from this vortex of precarious survival.
Without the politics or policies to address the underlying causes of these problems, right-wing organisations are beating the anti-immigrant drum in order to deflect attention from their own complicity in the crisis. The Patriotic Alliance, ACDP, Democratic Alliance, Afriforum, Action SA, IFP and MK Party are among the most prominent parties promoting right-wing politics of xenophobia, racism and ethno-nationalism. Like their global counterparts, many of these organisations also support Israel’s genocide and authoritarian leaders.
The national elections of 2024 revealed a tendency among politicians, including those from the ANC and EFF, to resort to anti-immigrant politics. Today, even trade union members blame ‘illegal immigrants’ for unemployment, lack of service delivery and high levels of crime. Xenophobia has become normalised across our society, with few political parties prepared to challenge the blatant lie that immigrants are the cause of our problems.
With the local government elections on the horizon, we are likely to witness an intensification of xenophobic rhetoric, as parties compete to be the most visible and radical anti-immigrant group. They will care little about the potential eruption of intra-community violence, which previously led to widespread destruction and deaths. In fact, an important objective of anti-immigrant politics is to sow divisions among poor people, to weaken their movements, and to undermine mobilisation against the system that produces poverty and unemployment.
The power of solidarity
The effective challenge to Operation Dudula in Johannesburg has inspired similar actions in communities, where movements have chased them away from hospitals and schools. It is the unity and power of these movements that stand in the way of anti-democratic authoritarianism. If the right-wing forces in South Africa and globally continue to grow, we face a dark future.
But there is hope. Across the world and even under the most difficult conditions, progressive movements and people are challenging the destructive conservative forces, from Alexandra to Palestine, Sudan and New York. An important and urgent task ahead is to build united fronts in South Africa, across our continent, and beyond, to advance an emancipatory agenda.
Noor Nieftagodien is the Head of the History Workshop at Wits University, a member of the Amandla! Collective and a founding member of Zabalaza for Socialism (ZASO).
This article first appeared in Amandla!
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