SATAWU PRESS STATEMENT CONDEMNING ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION INCLUDING XENOPHOBIA

Satawu condemns all forms of discrimination including xenophobia. Satawu further condemns the brutal and senseless attacks on nationals from other African countries which resulted in fatal injuries and even death.

It calls on all its members and shopstewards to desist from participating in any violent acts against these workers employed in the transport, cleaning and security sectors and living in our communities, police stations and churches.

In view of the events that had taken place in Gauteng, Western Cape , Kwazulu Natal , Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape , Satawu makes the following calls and interventions:

1. Employers particularly in the road freight and security sectors must refrain with immediate effect from employing non documented African nationals as cheap labour.
2. Employers' must desist from using non documented labour as scabs during strikes.
3. Employer associations will be engaged with a view to adopt strategies to stamp out such practices which does create tensions between locals and African nationals.
4. The Department of Labour must with immediate effect create the necessary capacity (which it always claims it does not have) to prosecute employers' who utilise non documented labour only for exploitative purposes.
5. Government at all levels must take responsibility for speeding up socio economic delivery to the masses of our people who remain poor and feel marginalised at the lower rungs of the economic chain as xenophobia is always likely to find expression where abject poverty is abound even though criminal elements will use such opportunities.
6. Practical solidarity must also be given to our fellow African brothers, sisters and children, who are part of the African working class, by Satawu members particularly through our local structures.  These will take the form of collecting blankets and providing food and other necessities at the camps, churches and police stations.

Statement issued by SATAWU General Secretary, Randall Howard, May 28 2008