Malema: Stop Blaming Foreign Nationals For South Africa’s Job Crisis

South African opposition leader Julius Malema has urged South Africans not to blame African migrants for unemployment and crime, as marches in Pretoria and Johannesburg called for deportations.

Speaking on Thursday at the Collen Mashawana Foundation’s 14th anniversary event, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader said attacks on black immigrants mirror apartheid-era divide-and-rule strategies.

He argued that such violence is sponsored by the state and by capital to shift public anger away from land reform and economic inequality.

“Fellow Africans, and you don’t realise that the same people who paid to fight each other during apartheid are the same ones who are doing the same,” Malema said.

“The provinces that are fighting black-on-black violence are the same that did during apartheid. The tribe that is fighting black-on-black violence is the one that did during apartheid.”

Malema dismissed the notion that Zimbabweans are stealing jobs from South Africans, saying, rather, Zimbabweans are simply taking the menial jobs that South Africans won’t take.

“At the centre of black-on-black hatred is a state-sponsored and capitalistically sponsored hatred to distract you from giving you economic opportunities. To blame, to make you blame wrong people for your misfortunes,” said Malema.

“There’s no Zimbabwe that took a land from you. There’s no Zimbabwe that took a tender from you. There’s no Zimbabwe that took a job from you.

“There are no jobs. The job Zimbabwe are doing, you won’t, don’t want to do that. You are educated enough to do those slave jobs. That’s why, not that you are lazy. You are not lazy; you know your worth. And you’re refusing to do those jobs.”

Malema said that the few people who control the means of production would want Africans to continue fighting among themselves to keep them from seeing the source of their problems.

“That is what I am hated for. The people who stole your land are white conquerors, white colonialists. It is written in books, no Zimbabwean conquered you, no Nigerian conquered you,” said Malema.

“Why are you turning your back on what is a true reflection of who we are to want to entertain sponsored contemporary politics that seek to distract you from why you are unemployed?

“They are moving you away. Apartheid did the same. It made the ANC fight with the IFP so that they are distracted from fighting for the liberation of South Africa. The script is the same. The writers of the script are the same people.

“Why are you not learning from your history that you are being made stupid? Are we being taken advantage of?

“They are repeating what they did in the past when they went into copper and made us fight one another in the hostels and kill each other. The same people are doing it today.

“You are refusing to think. You are refusing to be critical. You are thinking about the next election. If I say this, I won’t get elected.”