IN QUOTES | Blade Nzimande on African leaders, xenophobia & femicide

On Monday, SA Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande addressed delegates at the SA Clothing and Textiles Workers Union (Sactwu) conference in Durban.

In his address, Ndzimande urged African leaders to get their countries in order and stop blaming South Africans for the recent attacks on foreign nationals.

Here are five quotes from his address:

African leaders

"African leaders must get their act together, such that they don't disappoint their country and people have to leave.

"As SA we cannot absorb the result of all the problems that are made by leaders who want to loot their country and do not care about their own."

Xenophobia description

"What often gets described as xenophobia is in part essentially these intra-class conflicts and competition for the same scarce resources.

"Often what parades as xenophobia is in part a reflection of community frustrations with the rising phenomenon of drug abuse and the role of both South Africans and foreign nationals in drug dealing."

Violence and crime in SA

"Our education and other institutions, as part of the broader society, are also becoming sites of different types of violence and criminality.

"These include gender-based violence (GBV) and drug dealing."

Red October campaign

"Our objectives for tackling gender-based violence, in particular, include campaigning for proper socialisation and equal treatment of all children.

"In this regard we will be pushing a strategic focus on both the girl and the boy child. This includes pushing the socialisation of the boy child from birth to never engage in any form of gender-based violence."

Support to fight against GBV

"We are calling upon organised workers to take up the fight against gender-based violence in earnest. Otherwise this legitimate struggle is likely to be hijacked by all sorts of opportunistic elements for disingenuous reasons.

"Sactwu, organising in a sector where women are in the majority, needs to play an even more prominent role. Working-class women should play a leading role in the struggles against gender-based violence, much as this struggle must be waged by both women and men."