Malema only wants open borders so Mazzotti can smuggle tobacco – Mngxitama

Black First Land First (BLF) leader Andile Mngxitama contacted The Citizen earlier on Thursday to express the view that Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema and his party’s calls for open borders in Africa are only a “pretext” to allow “imperialists” to continue to colonise Africa.

In particular, Mngxitama believes Malema’s calls for open borders are intended to protect alleged tobacco smuggler Adriano Mazzotti, who the EFF leader has been transparent about having received funding from.

“We aren’t going to allow Adriano Mazzotti to smuggle tobacco from Zimbabwe freely under the pretext of fighting the colonial border,” Mngxitama said in a WhatsApp message.

“Beware of agents of imperialism who are subverting pan-Afrikanism to serve their handlers and sponsors,” he continued.

Mngxitama, who was a member of the EFF before falling out with the party, which expelled him in 2015, sent these words ahead of the party’s press conference on Thursday, calling it a “general response” to Malema’s call for open borders, predicting that Malema would again make this at the presser, which indeed he did.

READ MORE: Mngxitama calls out ‘flipping’ Malema

“Africa’s problems will never be resolved by disunity. Only a united Africa can resolve the problems that have troubled the continent for centuries. We therefore make no apology when we call for African Unity, in particular renouncing the colonially imposed borders,” Malema said, in a repetition of a call he has made several times before.

Mngxitama has since released a statement, fleshing out his suspicions. In it he also says the recent violent attacks are not xenophobia but a “cry for help”. Earlier this week he told The Citizen that he believes the attacks are just a “dress rehearsal”. “One day we [will] turn it against whites. Just you watch,” he said.

Mngxitama expressed that he and his party are “tired of the overfed corrupt African leaders pretending to care for the poor” and “tired of the hypocrisy of blaming the victims of imperialism and neocolonialism for xenophobia,” as well as the “fake outrage against white monopoly capital (WMC) by its agents.”

“Africa, including SA, needs liberation. We don’t need anymore rhetoric to serve our oppressors,” he said.

The BLF leader then turned to Malema, accusing him of “hypocrisy and subversion of revolutionary theories to serve his masters”.

READ MORE: Mashaba says ANC is copying his ideas, even the ones slammed for ‘xenophobia’

Mngxitama uses as evidence of this the EFF’s decision to help Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor Herman Mashaba attain the mayorship in Johannesburg, saying “Malema gave political power to Helen Zille who devolved it to Mashaba to serve WMC and attack so called ‘foreign nationals'”.

Mashaba has been accused of xenophobia on multiple occasions.

He then alleges that Malema is serving Mazzotti, and only wants the collapse of borders so that the co-owner of controversial tobacco company CarniLinx can bring tobacco into SA “with ease”.

The calls for open borders is is “an insult”, Mngxitama says. “We know Malema is loyal to one ideology – the ideology of money. His call for African unity is a mere ploy to fund-raise from the wealthy.”

The full statement can be read here.

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