EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and DA MP Leon Schreiber have slammed home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi for his comments about illegal foreign nationals.

In a video that went viral on social media this week, Motsoaledi shared his views on undocumented foreign nationals in the country, claiming SA is the only sovereign country in the world where it is open season for “rascals” who have committed serious crimes in their countries of birth.

Ndlozi said Motsoaledi is a “political degenerate” and slammed him for targeting “vulnerable and poor” foreigners instead of alleged corruption in his own department.

“We are being mobilised/coerced to focus all our energies on ‘foreigners’, all of whom are black, vulnerable and poor. This is to silence and divert the focus from the ruling establishment. Motsoaledi is a political degenerate. Andizi,” said Nlozi.

He called Motsoaledi “an idiot on a crusade”, saying his “attack” on black foreigners seeks to give credence to the "tide of Afrophobia".

“Idiot Motsoaledi on a crusade dealing with ‘illegal’ immigrants, all of whom are black, seeks to give credence to the tide of Afrophobia. Another diversion. Crusades should be at home affairs: public arrests and shaming of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who collapsed the system,” said Ndlozi.

Schreiber criticised those who praised Motsoaledi, including ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.

“Aaron Motsoaledi is Herman Mashaba’s xenophobic hero,” he said.

“Ask yourself: if Mashaba’s crusade was about immigration, why does he worship the very ANC politician who destroyed home affairs? The answer is that this is not about immigration, it is about Mashaba harnessing his rabid xenophobia for cheap politics.”

Mashaba, under the hashtag #SupportForMotsoaledi”, said the minister was doing "excellent work" by "saving and protecting the sovereignty of SA".

In his address at an ANC regional conference in the Eastern Cape, Motsoaledi said illegal foreigners using SA would end, with sting operations planned to arrest all illegal foreigners and prioritising those engaged in criminality.

“Something is going wrong in our continent and SA is on the receiving end. When you talk, they take a big word and throw it at you and South Africans blink and run away. There is a word called xenophobia. Every time you try to show something is wrong: ‘xenophobia’,” he said.

“We are the only country that accepts rascals. Even the UN is angry with us that SA has a tendency, because of something called democracy, to accept all the rascals of the world".

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.