The ZACF is rooted in the Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) by the Dielo Truda group, but it does not accept the document uncritically.

The ZACF is also inspired by the pamphlet Towards a Fresh Revolution, written by the Friends of Durruti, a grouping of Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT, or National Confederation of Labour) members, during the Spanish Revolution, as well as by Georges Fontenis' post-war pamphlet Manifesto of Libertarian Communism.

More recently it has come under the influence of South American especifismo, a tendency which originated in the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU, or Uruguayan Anarchist Federation).

[1] ZACF members are expected to be committed, convinced anarchist communist militants who must be in general agreement with the platformist principles of theoretical and tactical unity, collective responsibility, and federalism.

This is because the ZACF holds that the strength of trade unions, social movements and other organizations of the working class lies in their ability to unite the greatest number of workers regardless of their political, religious or ideological affiliations.

[1] The ZACF is the most recent in a rather short line of South African anarchist organizations stretching back to the early 1990s, from which it has inherited some members.

[6] The ZACF, as ZabFed, was part of the short-lived International Libertarian Solidarity (ILS),[7] as were its predecessors Bikisha Media Collective and Zabalaza Books.

[9] As such, the ZACF has close links to the member organizations of the Anarkismo network; particularly with the Workers' Solidarity Movement (WSM) in Ireland, Common Struggle – Libertarian Communist Federation (formerly NEFAC) in the United States, the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (FdCA, or Federation of Anarchist Communists) in Italy, the FAU in Uruguay, Alternative libertaire (AL, or Libertarian Alternative) in France, the Federación Anarco-Comunista de Argentina (FACA, or Anarcho-Communist Federation of Argentina), the FARJ in Rio de Janeiro, the Organização Anarquista Socialismo Libertário (OASL, or Libertarian Socialism Anarchist Organisation) in São Paulo and the Federação Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG, or Gaúcha Anarchist Federation) in Rio Grande do Sul.