Johannesburg – Activist Mokoena Letsie of the Solidarity Action Committee Collective (SACC) and Potch4Palestine has been fatally shot by unknown assailants.
Denouncing the murder, the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) on Wednesday, 27 May 2026, said it was “devastated and enraged by the brutal assassination of our comrade”.
In a statement made available to The Bulrushes, GIWUSA said Letsie “has just succumbed to his injuries after being shot 17 times in a targeted hit”.
The statement added: “Cde Mokoena Letsie was a colossal figure of the working class.
“He dedicated his life to organising the most marginalised – the informal settlements around Potchefstroom, where communities are waging daily struggles for housing, service delivery, jobs, and human dignity.
“He was not an activist from a distance; he lived and fought among the poor.”
The union revealed that as a leader of the SACC, Cde Letsie worked shoulder to shoulder with GIWUSA on multiple campaigns, including:
- The ongoing #ScrapLabourBills Campaign against anti-worker labour laws;
- The SA Energy Embargo for Palestine campaign;
- And numerous other local and international working-class solidarity campaigns.
“Crucially, the Solidarity Action Committee has taken the historic decision to stand in the upcoming local government elections – to put forward genuine working class and socialist alternatives to the pro-capitalist parties and the deepening crises of their capitalist system and neoliberal policy failures,” GIWUSA stated.
“Cde Letsie’s formidable mass base in the informal settlements made him a potent challenge and a direct threat to the political establishment in Potchefstroom.
“It is for this reason – and following three years of sustained intimidation against him, escalating to specific, direct threats over the past two months – that we state with absolute certainty: Cde Mokoena Letsie was politically assassinated.
“He was killed because he organised the poor. He was killed because he built a working class alternative to the establishment.”
GIWUSA demanded that the police launch a priority homicide investigation and arrest the perpetrators without delay.
“We call on all workers, trade unions, informal settlement dwellers, and progressive formations to demand justice for Cde Mokoena,” implored the union.
“The political establishment wanted him silenced. They have spilled blood. But the struggle will not die.
“Our deepest condolences to his family, his comrades in SACC, and the Potch4Palestine collective.”
