Operation Dudula’s xenophobic behaviour worse than EFF

EFF leader Julius Malema, who recently visited restaurants to check the numbers of foreign workers, on Monday excoriated President Cyril Ramaphosa for allowing “xenophobic cowards to intimidate vulnerable people”.

It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master J. Sometimes it’s difficult to judge whether Malema is intentionally flip-flopping or simply meandering.

Certainly his longer-term messaging leans towards borderless Pan-Africanism.

That would be consistent with his contribution to Monday’s debate on the State of the Nation Address (Sona): “There are thugs today who go around calling themselves Operation Dudula, who are harassing innocent people, demanding proof of citizenship from them.”

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That’s not unlike what Malema and entourage were doing weeks ago, harassing business owners over the citizenship of employees.

However, if Malema is opposing Operation Dudula, he deserves some encouragement.

Judging by their behaviour in Orange Grove, Norwood and Alexandra over the weekend, Dudula xenophobes are worse than the EFF.

Google definitions of dudula include: “push away, repel, repulse, beat back, drive back.”

Operation Dudula aims to drive out people suspected of not being South Africans.

Who pays for the branded T-shirts, which jobless Dudula ladies are wont to remove to publicise their cause?

Not-xenophobia has made for unexpected bedfellows and shown up differences which were not formerly apparent.

ActionSA leader, Herman Mashaba has declared the ANC public enemy number one.

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Yet he praises the governing party’s minister of home affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi.

“Let’s support this patriotic South African,” Mashaba tweeted when Motsoaledi announced plans to tighten restrictions on foreign nationals.

Both Motsoaledi and Mashaba say they are not xenophobic and don’t care if others use that word.

ActionSA’s not-xenophobia is milder than that of another green-shirt party, the Patriotic Alliance (PA).

Last month, PA leader Gayton McKenzie warned: “All Patriotic Alliance forces throughout the country are visiting all shops owned by illegal foreigners” on the pretext of eradicating expired food.

Not-xenophobia has exposed a long-suspected schism between Mashaba and former DA leader Mmusi Maimane.

When Mashaba announced his mayoral resignation in October 2019, Maimane stood beside him.

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After Mashaba had finished criticising the DA, Maimane raised high the shorter man’s hand, hailing him as a hero.

There was no repeat this week when they clashed on Twitter.

Responding to an article in The Citizen in which Maimane opposed the scapegoating of fellow Africans living here, Mashaba told the younger man not to “practice (sic) your Ubuntu at the expense of South Africans”.

Recent contributions by Malema and Maimane are welcome.

By interrupting the rising one-way tide of xenophobia, they may cause us to pause and think: where is this headed?

Driving out foreign nationals will not solve SA’s problems. It will weaken us. Hate is not the answer.