Julius Malema’s EFF under siege

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has landed in hot water amid accusations that the party was involved in campaigns against illegal immigrants.

The accusations were brought by the African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, in a public address.

He said the EFF had gone door-to-door in 2022, forcibly removing foreign nationals from businesses where they were employed.

This incident began at the Mall of Africa in Gauteng, where EFF members demanded that businesses employ South Africans in at least 60% of their positions.

Mbalula said this showed hypocrisy from the EFF, which has been a vocal critic of the ANC’s performance in removing illegal immigrants.

“Parties are not bystanders. Seeds sown in the soil of our people’s frustration can grow into something deadly,” he said.

One shop owner was pressured by the party to announce changes to their staff structure to comply with the EFF’s demands.

The demonstration was condemned by the Department of Labour, which declared the inspections unlawful.

Mbalula said the inspections by the EFF helped normalise attacks on immigrants, which have become a recent challenge in South Africa.

“The party posing as the enforcer, hurling the foreign worker into the spotlight, helped normalise the targeting of the vulnerable that we now see,” he said.

South Africa has recently seen a surge in anti-immigration sentiment, with groups such as March and March fueling the anger at foreign nationals.

This resulted in major demonstrations across the country on 30 June 2026, which many people labelled a “national shutdown.”

The protests on this day were largely peaceful, but fears in the lead-up prompted many foreign nationals to flee the country.

At the time, the EFF defended these inspections, claiming they were oversight visits, which are regularly conducted by political groups.

The EFF responds

The EFF has responded to Mbalula’s remarks, calling them false allegations against the party.

The party said it did not engage in any illegal inspections but rather conducted legal oversight visits to ensure businesses complied with South African laws.

“Those oversight visits, led by the President of the EFF, Julius Malema, were conducted in the exercise of Parliament’s constitutional oversight responsibilities,” it said.

“Their purpose was to assess compliance with South Africa’s labour legislation, including whether employers were adhering to employment laws”.

Oversight visits are a common occurrence, where policymakers or government departments visit areas to assess effectiveness.

These visits are generally used to ensure that reports received by the government reflect what is really happening in the country.

While oversight visits are legal, they cannot force changes within businesses, but are used to report discrepancies to the relevant departments.

The EFF said Mbalula’s accusations were defamatory, creating the impression that the party had intimidated foreign nationals in South Africa.

“The EFF has never organised, endorsed or participated in door-to-door campaigns to intimidate, threaten or forcibly remove foreign nationals from their homes,” the party said.

“To now characterise legitimate parliamentary oversight as the spark that ignited anti-immigrant protests is shameless political revisionism.”

“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”.

The party took aim at Mbalula, accusing him of shifting the blame for South Africa’s anti-immigration movements away from the ANC.

It said Mbalula’s accusations were harmful to the EFF and endangered its members.

The EFF’s leader, Julius Malema, was openly against the recent anti-immigration protests and said party members should not attend.

He called the demonstrations a distraction from the real issues plaguing the country, including weak economic growth that is leading to a lack of job opportunities.