EFF leader Julius Malema has poured cold water on recent anti-illegal migrant protests across the country, telling demonstrators, “you are fighting over useless things”.
The March and March Movement has been leading nationwide protests against undocumented foreign nationals, demanding the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
Addressing EFF members at the party’s Workers’ Day rally in Rustenburg on Friday, Malema questioned the impact the marches have actually had on SA’s unemployment crisis.
“Let’s ask a question: after you march and say you don’t want Zimbabweans, Nigerians, and Ghanaians, you close their shops. Why are you then not telling us that you expelled 10 Zimbabweans and were able to give jobs to 10 South Africans,” Malema asked.
He argued that the removal of foreigners did not address the lack of “proper” employment, characterising jobs often performed by migrants as exploitative. “Zimbabweans perform jobs you don’t want because those are slave’s jobs. They don’t pay anything. You want proper jobs, you want jobs with a payslip, an appointment letter with a pension and a medical aid and you deserve it.”
Malema further argued that targeting other Africans was a distraction from the larger issue of land ownership. He pointed out that no Zimbabwean or Nigerian in SA “owns the land”, suggesting that protesters were being misled into fighting the wrong battles.
He also warned that after targeting foreigners, protesters might eventually turn on South Africans who do not speak Zulu.
The EFF leader further criticised the anti-migrant movement that is demanding the removal of foreign children from schools and pregnant women from clinics. “Why do you ask me to take a child out of school because they are not South African? How can I look at my own child and feel like a proud father after removing another black child from school — something that was done to us during apartheid,” he asked.
“I will never do it. I am not going to take a pregnant woman out of a clinic because she is not South African.”
While acknowledging that some foreign nationals committed crimes, Malema argued that South African citizens also commit crimes. He maintained that anyone who broke the law should be dealt with accordingly, regardless of their documentation status.
He urged citizens to take their grievances to the department of home affairs rather than taking to the streets. “Let’s deal with illegal immigration through the law.”
TimesLIVE
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