Pretoria \u2013 EFF leader Julius Malema on Monday criticised sections of the South African community championing the #BlackLivesMatter global movement while they maintained silence or supported the attacks when foreign nationals, particularly African immigrants, were brutalised on numerous occasions in South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you kill Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Nigerians and Somalians here in South Africa and you call them \u2018makwerekwere\u2019 and all sorts of names, today you are holding a placard saying #BlackLivesMatter? You supported the killing of your fellow black brothers and sisters, and you have some useless hashtag on social media saying #PutSouthAfricaFirst. That is narrow nationalism,\u201d Malema told protesters outside the US embassy in Pretoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem of black people is not a problem of South Africa. A black man is hated everywhere, be it in China, France and everywhere. Instead of saying South Africa first, we must be saying Africa first, black first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malema said the problem of racism continues to grow across the world because many Africans suffer from \u201cself-hate\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t respect yourselves. If you loved this black face, when you are about to burn a Zimbabwean, you see the tears of a black fellow African crying for his or her life, then you should see yourself in that person and stop immediately. It is not a problem of Zimbabwe or of Nigeria, the problem is self-hate,\u201d said the outspoken opposition leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are one family. Borders were imposed on us. You must not buy into the story of the existence of Botswana or of Lesotho because all these borders are an imagination. You are saying #BlackLivesMatter, yet you support the borders. You say you don\u2019t like imperialism and colonialism but you support the borders. The border was created by colonisers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malema, joined by EFF treasurer-general Omphile Maotwe and secretary-general\u00a0Marshall Dlamini, led a crowd of protesters demanding justice for African-American George Floyd, who died at the hands of white police officers in the US state of Minnesota. The killing of Floyd has sparked protests in different parts of the world under the #BlackLivesMatter movement.<\/p>\n
Malema also denounced the crushing of dissent in African countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cRamaphosa has no leg (to stand on) to pretend that he cares about black lives. Those American police saw Ramaphosa instructing the South African police to kill black people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey knew that if African authorities have no regard for black lives, why should we respect black lives? People are killed in Zimbabwe, Nigeria and in the Democratic Republic of Congo by their own governments when they protest, when they stand up to say \u2018you can\u2019t be a president forever\u2019 they get killed for raising legitimate demands. You are teaching the world that there is no value for black lives. You cannot kill people for saying the truth,\u201d said Malema.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pretoria \u2013 EFF leader Julius Malema on Monday criticised sections of the South African community championing the #BlackLivesMatter global movement while they maintained silence or supported the attacks when foreign nationals, particularly African immigrants, were brutalised on numerous occasions in South Africa. \u201cWhile you kill Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Nigerians and Somalians here in South Africa and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":24135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[859,577],"class_list":{"0":"post-24131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-malema","10":"tag-xenophobia"},"yoast_head":"\n