Malema: ‘Let’s document foreigners because whether you like it or not, they’re here’

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema says the country should look into documenting foreigners instead of deporting them.

Malema clarified his party’s stance on the influx of foreigners in the country and the ‘open border policy’ on SABC News’ Face the Nation on Tuesday. 

‘SA behaves like a mad person’

He said South Africans needed to face the reality that foreigners were already in the country, and they were not going anywhere because “there are no borders in South Africa”.

“Whether you like it or not, there are no borders in South Africa. That is just something written for formality on the founding manifesto of the EFF. There are no borders.

“We [South Africa] behave like a mad person who has a shack and a yard. He goes and puts a gate where there is no fence. When you go out, you lock the gate but don’t have a fence. When you come back, you unlock that gate and your neighbour looks at you like you’re mad,” said Malema.

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Even Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie proved Malema right when the PA patrolled the SA-Zimbabwe border to deter them from crossing the river into South Africa, said the EFF leader.

“Gayton McKenzie was running all over Limpopo river saying he’s chasing Zimbabweans who are crossing into South Africa, and almost eaten by crocodiles for doing that.

“But the foolish him didn’t know he was proving what I’m saying that there is no fence, so what open border are you talking about which is not happening now, which is going to happen after the EFF takes over government. These Africans have always been here.”

Malema: ‘Document foreigners’

The EFF’s open border policy did not advocate for undocumented foreigners, said Malema, but for them to be documented.

“The EFF agrees that we don’t want undocumented people in South Africa. How can we say South Africans must get IDs and then welcome people who are undocumented? Everybody has to be documented so that if any wrongdoing happens, we can find your location,” said the EFF leader.

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“The solution is, let’s document these people because whether you like it or not, they’re here. You know what they do in December? They hand themselves over to Lindela so that they can eat Christmas at home and in January, they come back.

“That money could have been used on some feeding scheme, to feed the children of the poor or in the clinics. You are in denial, xenophobic people are in denial that these people are here.”

‘We need them’

Malema said the argument that foreigners were taking jobs from South Africans was flawed because South Africans would not do the jobs given to foreigners.

Instead of chasing them out of South Africa, they should be documented and do the jobs.

“The jobs they are taking are slavery jobs that no South African wants to do,” he said.

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“We’re going to chase these people out of South Africa, tomorrow, the whole plumbing and sewer system of South Africa will go into a blockade and we’ll not be in a position to help ourselves because we don’t have artisans.

“The whole of South Africa will go into an electricity crisis because you chased away the electricians. South African electricians and plumbers are not enough. They can’t meet the demand. We don’t produce to the capacity of the demand.

“We’re retrenching teachers, not because foreigners have taken those jobs, we just don’t have the political will to sustain those jobs.”

Regarding jobs that require qualifications, a South African with the same qualifications should be prioritised.

“We must not find ourselves behind time. The EFF is being punished for being ahead of time. We say things now, and you guys come to appreciate them extremely late because we’re too far in thinking.

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“These Africans, when you needed them, they were there for you. Today we’re in a comfortable place, we say we don’t want them.

“They’re here already, you put them in Lindela with our state money, you pay for buses and take them back, and they come back the following day.”