WATCH | ‘United States of Africa’- Mbuyiseni Ndlozi praises Thabo Mbeki's stance on African unity

04 February 2021 - 11:30 By unathi nkanjeni
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The EFF's Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has backed calls for a more united Africa. File photo.
The EFF's Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has backed calls for a more united Africa. File photo.
Image: Brian Witbooi/The Herald

A video of former president Thabo Mbeki speaking about a united Africa seems to have hit the right note with EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.

This week, the outspoken MP took to Twitter to share a video of Mbeki urging Africans to see each other as one, despite borders.

“The notion of SA first, in terms of our continent, is illogical. It is completely illogical,” said Mbeki. “It is not possible for SA to approach the continent as though there is a dichotomy.”

Ndlozi and the EFF have been vocal about creating a borderless Africa.

Last month, Ndlozi rejected calls for Beitbridge border post to be closed after the border between SA and Zimbabwe made headline amid reports that the Zimbabwean authorities had banned international travel.

TimesLIVE reported that many Zimbabwean citizens were trying to enter SA, both legally and illegally.

The influx created a huge backlog in the processing of documentation and Covid-19 testing and screening, which resulted in hundreds of people, many not wearing masks, crammed together without social distancing.

Ndlozi said closing the border was “inhumane” and would “breed a worse humanitarian crisis than Covid-19”.

“Let our people in. They are part of us. They live here and have been living here for centuries,” he said at the time.

Another politician who has previously called for a borderless Africa is finance minister Tito Mboweni.

Last year, Mboweni called for the removal of the Lesotho border, saying Lesotho should open its border to a “co-federal” state with SA.

He said party political systems in Lesotho were “a terrible chapter in the political life of the Left”, adding that they were created in the name of “democratic centralism”.

“Mutually agree to remove borders and create a democratic co-federation,” he said at the time.


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