South Africa comes out in solidarity with the UK hunger strikers

Organisations in South Africa have taken to the streets, calling for government action to urge the UK to stop the imminent death of political prisoners Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed.

Muraisi and Ahmed are “on the brink of death” after two months of a hunger strike against their cruel treatment by the state. They and others face allegations of non-violent action against Israeli arms company Elbit amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But because the UK government later deemed this direct action to be ‘terrorism’:

All eight individuals will have spent more than a year in prison before their trials take place, well beyond the UK’s usual six-month pre-trial detention limit.

A broad coalition of groups and individuals in South Africa have shown solidarity with the hunger strikers this week by calling on their government to put pressure on the UK to stop their deaths:

🧵 January 8, 2026 | Africa News Round Up | From Drop Site News Africa correspondent Godfrey Olukya

🇿🇦 SOUTH AFRICA
Thousands of South Africans, led by several civil society organizations, held nationwide protests on Tuesday in solidarity with pro-Palestine hunger strikers being… pic.twitter.com/IulmPqSSdf

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 9, 2026

Relating to this protest, the civil society organisations said the hunger strikers:

are political prisoners who are being singled out, labelled terrorists and punished (instead of celebrated) for allegedly destroying killing machines.

They added:

A total of 33 activists remain in UK pre-trial detention, unjustly denied bail for as much as a year for allegations that have yet to be heard in court. They are subjected to shocking mistreatment in prison, placed in solitary confinement, abused by prison guards, denied medical care, and have had their communications censored.

‘Unjust detention’, say people in South Africa

A 29 December open letter, meanwhile, urged South Africa’s president and international minister to:

hold the UK government to account

It also noted that the alleged actions of the hunger strikers relate to:

Britain’s supply of weapons to Israel for its genocide against Palestinians.

And as it stressed, the political prisoners:

are awaiting trial, and have not been convicted of any crime.

It further noted the connection to past hunger strikes in South Africa itself, saying:

Under apartheid, some detained unjustly by the regime used hunger strikes as the only form of resistance available to them, calling for justice for themselves and for all who were oppressed. As a nation, we must therefore stand in solidarity with these… young people, support their reasonable demands, and urge the British government to end its injustices against them, actions that could ultimately cost them their lives.

A national – and international – scandal

Back in the UK, Amnesty International has called the situation “drastic and urgent”:

We urge David Lammy to immediately authorise a senior official to meet with the legal representatives of Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed – both on prolonged hunger strike and at extreme risk of death.

Their representatives have repeatedly requested this meeting and it is now… pic.twitter.com/HcW58C074X

— Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) January 8, 2026

Your Party figures have condemned the government’s cruel behaviour. MP Jeremy Corbyn has called the ordeal a “national scandal“. And MP Zarah Sultana has called the government’s treatment of the captives “spineless and cowardly“.

Green figures have also criticised the Labour government. Party leader Zack Polanski, for example, has called its excessively harsh detention of the activists an “egregious violation“. MP Carla Denyer, meanwhile, has called for action to protect the hunger strikers, insisting that:

anti-terrorism powers are being misused to avoid treating them fairly.

According to Al Jazeera:

Hundreds of doctors have called on the UK government to increase the frequency of medical observations of the hunger strikers.

And emergency physician Dr James Smith has said the strikers have received:

the most undignified treatment that I have ever come across in an NHS environment in my career as a doctor

Despite rapidly deteriorating health and hospitalisation, however, Muraisi and Ahmed have pledged to continue their hunger strike.

The UK government, meanwhile, is further seeking to ramp up its deeply regressive clampdown on protest.

Over in South Africa, people have a strong, recent memory of what it’s like to resist the cruelty of a repressive regime, and their solidarity today is incredibly welcome. Together with them and others around the world, we must keep stepping up to oppose the brutal, anti-democratic momentum currently plaguing the planet.

Featured image via the Canary