Malema tells South Africans to stop the violence against ‘other poor people’

EFF leader Julius Malema has called on South Africans to stop the violence against other poor people in their communities.

The call comes after days of unrest that has seen violent lootings, death, and destruction of property in parts of Gauteng, the economic heart of SA.

The attacks, which have been characterised as xenophobic, have seen CBDs in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane engulfed in violence over the past two weeks.

Malema said at a media briefing on Thursday that the levels of poverty in SA, the rise of unemployment and general hunger has left people fighting for limited resources. He said this has given space to “agents provocateurs” to lead looting of small businesses and malls in cities and townships.

“This has also been worsened by the misguided programme by the government targeting the raids of counterfeit goods among black people,” Malema said. “If the raiding was genuine, how is it that Sandton malls were not raided by the SA Police Service?

“We call on our fellow South Africans to stop the violence against other poor people in our communities. Xenophobic violence will never resolve the problems our country faces because they were not caused by foreign nationals in the first place,” Malema said.

He said unemployment, poverty, lack of service delivery and high levels of crime are “all created by the ANC government and its bosses in the white monopoly capital quarters”.

He said to kill another poor person with the hope that it would resolve your own poverty, is a sign of “self-hate”. 

“The battle must be taken to the real people who control our lives; the ANC government and big business that have failed to make our economy grow, create jobs, defeat poverty and unemployment,” Malema said, noting that the government does not employ foreigners, while the private sector does.

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