Abahlali baseMjondolo opposes border closures and xenophobia. As a movement that has advocated for the poor for 15 years, they believe that people are made poor by colonialism and capitalism, not by migrants. Xenophobia divides the oppressed and distracts from failures to address crises like Covid-19. Closing borders is an act of xenophobia, as the virus knows no borders. Solidarity with all oppressed people regardless of origin is needed.

1. Abahlali baseMjondolo is opposed to the closure of
borders
Since our movement was formed 15 years ago we have always
opposed the systems that make people poor and keep them
poor. We have always opposed all attacks on the poor. We are
in solidarity with all oppressed people regardless of the country
or province of their birth, the language that they speak, the
religion that they follow or the colour of their skin. Any
oppressed person who accepts the principles of abahlalism and
the philosophy of ubuhlali is welcomed into our movement and
can be elected into any position.
We have always said that a neighbour is a neighbour and a
comrade is a comrade without regard to where they were born,
what language they speak at home, etc, etc. We have also
always noted that someone can be born in the same place as
you, speak your language and be your oppressor.
No one in South Africa is poor because their neighbour was
born in another province or country. The scarcity of jobs has
nothing to do with migrants. We were made poor by colonialism
and capitalism, and are we kept poor by the corruption of the
ANC and its alliance with capital. We continue to suffer
because of this filthy, bloody capitalism. It will continue to
destroy human beings and the world until it is defeated.
Xenophobia is a politic that is encouraged by elites with the aim
of dividing the oppressed and turning us against each other.
Both factions of the ANC encourage xenophobia. Now they are

2. using xenophobia to distract us from how they have failed to
deal with the Covid crisis.
The recent announcement by the president of our country that
the borders will be closed is an act of xenophobia. The Covid
crisis was not caused by people from Zimbabwe or
Mozambique. Covid is in every country in the world. In fact the
situation in South Africa is much worse than in most other
African countries.
Anyone can contract the virus from anyone else. A virus knows
nothing about borders and nationality. The idea that people are
kept safe by borders and walls is the politic of Donald Trump.
We will be kept safe by a huge commitment to support public
health. There needs to be support for preventative measures
like high quality masks, social distancing and sanitising.
Employers need to be forced to keep their workers safe. People
who are infected need to receive the best possible medical
treatment. The vaccine needs to be rolled out to as many
people as possible as soon as is possible.
Instead of supporting the poor through the crisis the
government attacked us. During the first lockdown people were
beaten to death by the police and the army. There were regular
violent and illegal evictions.
The ANC used to be considered as a liberation movement.
Now they disgrace the history of Pan Africanism by embracing
colonial borders and harassing, beating, robbing and jailing

3. migrants.
The ANC is now a party with many leaders who are thieves
who made themselves rich by making others poor. It is also a
party with many leaders who have been made rich by their
accommodation with capitalism, a system that continues to
destroy the world and to keep the majority of humanity poor.
The battles in the ANC are battle between oppressors. The
party dominates the people. It does not represent them.
Removing those who became rich by stealing from the state will
not solve our problems. Black capitalists are also oppressors of
our people. We have seen workers in Marikana who were
asking for a living wage being killed like animals by a
government that they have voted into power. During apartheid
the life of a black person was cheap. Today it you are an
impoverished black person your life remains cheap. Before
1994 black people were landless and millions were living in
squalor in shacks. Today we remain landless unless we
occupy. When we occupy we are met with bullets and death
from a Black government. Many more people live in shacks
now they in 1994. People need to ask why these things are still
continuing even after we have changed from a white
government to a black government.
In our settlements we live peacefully with our brothers and
sisters from different countries. A number of our leaders were
born outside of South Africa. This is the spirit of ubuhlali.
Ubuhlali leads naturally to Pan Africanism and internationalism.

4.
Patrice Lumumba was assassinated sixty years ago today. Like
Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Frantz Fanon, Amilcar
Cabral, Steve Biko, Chris Hani and many others Lumumba
stood for Pan-Africanism and internationalism. The ANC
disgraces this history.
Ramaphosa is the chairperson of the Africa Union but he is no
Pan Africanist. What Pan Africanist would close the borders
during a time of crisis? Ramaphosa is an embarrassment to all
Africans who have struggled for freedom.
In this time when we are faced with a pandemic, and our
continent continues to be robbed by corporations, dominated by
the West, and looted and oppressed by corrupt and
authoritarian politicians, we reject the nationalists in the ANC.
We need to unite as Africans and build a future in which
everyone’s dignity is respected and the wealth of our continent
is used to build homes, hospitals, parks, cultural spaces and
schools and universities worthy of our humanity.
Our humanity cannot be confined to any borders. We must
remember that the colonial borders were created to divide us.
Nkrumah once said, ‘I am not an African because I was born in
Africa, but because Africa was born in me’.
In our movement we continue to maintain that a human being is
a human being wherever and whenever they find themselves.
We will continue to work with all progressive forces to opposes

5. xenophobia and build solidarity among the oppressed.
It must be made clear that those among the elites who continue
to promote xenophobia in the name of the poor do not speak
for us. It must be made clear that every xenophobic person,
rich or poor, is part of the system of oppression.
Every human life is fragile and precious. Every human life must
be counted as a life. On this point there can never be any
compromise.
We would also like to take this opportunity to express our
solidarity with the people of Uganda who, like the people of
Zimbabwe, are struggling against a brutal dictator.
We also express our solidarity with the friends, colleagues and
comrades of Vusimuzi Cibane, a Numsa shopsteward from
KwaNdengezi who recently passed on.
We also express our deepest solidarity with the Zikode, Mkhize
and Luvela families in their time of mourning.