EFF slams Mbalula after he accused the party of setting a vigilante trend against foreign nationals

The EFF has accused the ANC’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, of misrepresenting their position on illegal migration to South Africa and the employment of foreign nationals in the hospitality industry.

This comes after Mbalula described the EFF as flip-floppers who are part of groups that were antagonistic towards foreign nationals. On his Facebook account, Mbalula accused the EFF of setting vigilante trends in the country.

“Let us jog the public memory, because they will deny it. In January 2022, the Economic Freedom Fighters and their leader, Julius Malema, marched into restaurants, beginning at the Mall of Africa, to inspect how many South Africans and how many foreigners were employed, demanding a sixty-forty quota of locals to migrants.

“At one establishment, the owner was pressured until a staffing split was announced. The Department of Employment and Labour condemned these unlawful, self-appointed inspections at the time. That theatre, the party posing as the enforcer, hauling the foreign worker into the spotlight, helped to normalise the very targeting of the vulnerable that we now see on our streets.

“Today the same party wishes to wrap itself in the flag of pan-Africanism. The record says otherwise. You cannot light the match in 2022 and profess shock at the fire in 2026,” said Mbalula.

EFF retaliates against Mbalula

However, the EFF has now retaliated to these remarks, claiming that Mbalula is spreading falsehoods about the party. In a statement on Thursday, the party’s elections spokesperson, Thembi Msane, said the EFF has never organised, endorsed or participated in door-to-door campaigns to intimidate, threaten or forcibly remove foreign nationals from their homes.

“Such conduct is fundamentally inconsistent with the EFF’s long-standing Pan-Africanist principles and our commitment to the unity of the African continent. We reject xenophobia in all its forms and have consistently maintained that the failures of the South African state cannot be blamed on poor African migrants seeking survival, but on corruption, unemployment, inequality, state incapacity and the deliberate collapse of public institutions under ANC rule,” said Msane.

Clarity on inspections at Mall of Africa

According to Msane, the campaigns the EFF undertook at the Mall of Africa in 2022 were part of a parliamentary oversight by their leader Julius Malema.

“Equally dishonest is Mbalula’s attempt to blame the EFF for igniting anti-immigrant mobilisation by referring to the EFF’s 2022 parliamentary oversight visits to restaurants and businesses. Those oversight visits, led by the president of the EFF, Julius Malema, were conducted in the exercise of Parliament’s constitutional oversight responsibilities.

“Their purpose was to assess compliance with South Africa’s labour legislation, including whether employers were adhering to employment laws, ending the exploitation of undocumented labour, and ensuring that both South African and foreign workers were employed under lawful and fair conditions,” said Msane.

EFF blames ANC for porous borders

Msane said the ANC is to blame for tensions between illegal immigrants and South Africans.

“It is the ANC that has governed South Africa for over three decades while allowing immigration systems to collapse, border management to deteriorate, labour laws to be selectively enforced, and public confidence in the state’s ability to uphold the rule of law to disintegrate.”