Companies have quickly latched onto the rhetoric of 'Renaissance', presenting their economic endeavours in a modernisation frame that they claim is in harmony with the objectives of the new regionalism and the new 'Renaissance'. [...] The key objective in this paper is to discuss what the new South African investment means for the workers at these firms. [...] What dispositions and forms of claim-making prevail amongst waged workers at these foreign, South African multinational corporations? The aim here is to understand how workers at these firms see the role of South African companies in Zambia, and what they perceive as their place within these companies both in terms of problems and opportunities. [...] This paper seeks to show how, in the wake of growing disillusionment with their national governments, workers at foreign, South African firms focus their claims at the level of the Southern African region. [...] While not the only factors affecting the regional perceptions of workers, forms of workplace organisation of South African companies have important consequences for the regional dispositions and claims of workers at these firms.