The European parliament’s foreign affairs committee is set to visit South Africa from Monday to Wednesday as part of efforts to strengthen partnership and ongoing co-operation with one of Africa’s largest economies. The six members of the European parliament, to be led by foreign affairs committee chair David McAllister, will visit the economic centres of Johannesburg, Cape Town and the capital, Pretoria. They include McAllister (Germany), Michael Gahler (Germany), Tonino Picula (Croatia), Harald Vilimsky (Austria), Bernard Guetta (France), and Stanislav Stoyanov (Bulgaria). Topics of mutual interest to be discussed include international partnerships in a fast-changing geopolitical landscape, peace and security, political ties and Global Gateway, the EU’s global investment strategy, including the recent R220bn Global Gateway Team Europe Investment Package with South Africa. McAllister is expected to brief the media at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane is on Monday expected to deliver a public address on the “rising xenophobic sentiment” in South Africa and the failures of immigration policy and implementation. Maimane is expected to outline a vision for a “lawful, fair and human immigration system”. The address, to be delivered at the Constitution Hill precinct, will be attended by members of the diplomatic corps, civil society leaders, activists and public representatives. This comes after police warned they would act against any acts of intimidation, public violence, incitement or criminality, after a widely circulated video in which anti-immigration activist Nkosikhona Ndabandaba, popularly known as Phakelumthakathi, orders a man from the Democratic Republic of Congo to leave the country before June 30. Anti-immigration activists Ngizwe Mchunu, March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese, Phakelumthakathi and political parties including ActionSA recently held anti-immigration marches in Durban, KuGompo City, Pretoria and Johannesburg. Reacting to a recent wave of country-wide violent protests, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the marches were not representative of South Africa’s attitude towards foreigners. He admitted, however, that undocumented migrants placed a strain on healthcare, housing and municipal services in poor areas and distorted the labour market. Ramaphosa said the recent violent protests and criminal acts directed at foreigners in parts of the country also did not reflect government policy. Trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau is on Monday set to visit the Biovac Pharma facility in Cape Town as part of the department’s 2026/27 prebudget vote stakeholder engagement programme. He will be joined by science, technology & innovation minister Blade Nzimande. Biovac is a South African-based biopharmaceutical company established in 2003 in partnership with the government to build local vaccine manufacturing capability. The oversight visit forms part of the trade department’s ongoing efforts to showcase the impact of government-supported industrialisation initiatives, localisation efforts and strategic investments within priority sectors of the economy. On Tuesday, Tau is set to deliver the department’s 2026 budget vote speech, outlining its achievements during the previous financial year in executing its responsibilities, as well as the allocations to support the rollout of the annual performance plan. The department of home affairs will on Tuesday brief parliament’s home affairs portfolio committee on its fourth quarter performance and expenditure reports for the 2025/26 financial year. The department will also brief the committee on the asylum seeker backlog and the refusal of new asylum seeker applications. On Wednesday, the portfolio committee on employment & labour is set to receive the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF’s) progress report on the payment of factory workers in Qwa-Qwa. The UIF and Compensation Fund are also expected to brief the committee on progress regarding the unbundling of the entities.