‘Putting South Africans first’ or ‘playing politics’? — SA weighs in on Malema’s restaurant visits

EFF leader Julius Malema’s visit to restaurants in Gauteng on Wednesday to assess the employment ratio of locals and foreign nationals has received a mixed response from social media users.

Some have lauded Malema for “putting South Africans first”, while others have accused him of playing politics. 

Malema on Wednesday conducted an “oversight visit” to restaurants in the Mall of Africa in Midrand.

He urged South Africans not to misrepresent the visits as attacks on foreign nationals, because they did not hire themselves.

Malema said business owners should be challenged if they hire foreign nationals while ignoring South Africans, a large number of whom are unemployed.

“Let South Africans work together with our African brothers and sisters. Let us not exclude them in the name of our African brothers and sisters because that is instigating xenophobic attacks on our sisters and brothers. The cause is not our African brothers and sisters, it is the employer.”  

At one of the restaurants, Kream, Malema and a handful of EFF supporters were refused entry and were served with a letter. They were later allowed in.

After engaging the management, Malema told journalists he did not understand why he was refused entry because the restaurant was compliant.

“The Kream leadership apologised for their behaviour and blamed it on their legal department, that someone gave them a letter not to engage with us. When they engaged us outside, they realised there is no need not to engage.

TimesLIVE ran a poll asking readers what they said of Malema’s decision to assess the nationality of workers.

51% said it was wrong because it shouldn’t matter where a person comes from, while 49% believed the initiative was good, saying business owners must employ South Africans first.

The firebrand leader topped the Twitter trends list as opinions trickled in.