South African opposition leader defends migrants
The leader of South Africa’s opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, Julius Malema, has labelled ongoing marches against illegal immigration as “Afrophobia,” saying migrants from the continent are not responsible for the country’s unemployment crisis and service delivery problems.
“Poor Africans from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, or elsewhere on the continent are not responsible for unemployment, inequality, or collapsing public services,” Malema said.
He was speaking at the South African Communist Party’s (SACP) Conference of the Left in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, on Friday.
The three-day conference aims to strengthen coordination, unity in action, political education, and organised struggle among leftist and working-class formations, according to the SACP. Although the ANC confirmed it had been invited to the conference, the party rejected the gathering, saying there was “nothing leftist” about it.
Malema said the conference convened at a decisive historical moment characterised by economic instability, political uncertainty and what he described as the visible collapse of the global capitalist order.
According to him, global capitalism no longer attempts to justify itself morally or philosophically. Malema argued that societies organised around commodification reduce people to “mere cogs” in the pursuit of profit, leading to ecological destruction, racism, misogyny, militarisation, xenophobia and authoritarianism.
He said millions of workers remained trapped in debt despite being employed, while young people obtained education only to face unemployment.
Turning to South Africa, Malema argued that while political apartheid had ended, “economic apartheid” remained intact through unequal land ownership, financial concentration and white control of strategic sectors of the economy.
“The majority acquired political rights without corresponding economic power,” he said, adding that the economy remained structured around exclusion, citing unemployment levels as evidence. “Official unemployment exceeds 32%, while expanded unemployment exceeds 43%, meaning millions of people exist outside meaningful economic participation altogether,” he said.
Malema said crime, gender-based violence, drug abuse, gangsterism and social decay could not be separated from unemployment and economic insecurity. He criticised what he described as superficial analysis that blamed migrants for South Africa’s problems.
His remarks comes amid ongoing protests targeting undocumented immigrants. “The growing phenomenon of Afrophobia within South Africa must be confronted with absolute political clarity because it represents one of the most dangerous expressions of false consciousness within the working class,” he said.
He added that the future of African liberation depended on continental solidarity, regional industrialisation and coordinated resistance against global systems of extraction and dependency. Malema also addressed tensions between the ANC and the SACP following the formation of the Government of National Unity after the 2024 general election.
Relations between the alliance partners have deteriorated sharply since the SACP criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC leadership for including the DA and FF Plus in the GNU.
The SACP has also announced plans to contest the upcoming local government elections independently, while maintaining it is not leaving the tripartite alliance.
Among those attending the conference were representatives of the MK Party, Pan Africanist Congress, AZAPO, United Africans Transformation, NUMSA and SANCO.
