Julius Malema says xenophobic violence in SA is state-sponsored

Julius Malema has come out to say the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians and other African migrants in South Africa are state-sponsored. He said in a video that the police are actually accompanying the people committing these crimes, and the state broadcaster is giving them unlimited airtime to spread hate. That is a very serious allegation from a sitting MP.

Malema said, and I quote: "We've seen in many videos where people manhandled other people in the presence of the police. Take them from one building to the other in the name of looking for drugs. According to South African law, that's an assault, and police are duty-bound to intervene." He also said we cannot use our economic situation to justify hatred, that there has always been a contestation of resources but we were able to coexist. Meanwhile, a South African called Njabulo Zwane posted a video saying "we don't own anything in our country" and that foreign shops should leave.

But another South African, Khayalethu Sam who is married to a Nigerian woman, is pushing back. He said corruption and governance failures are the real problem, not migrants. So my question is this: if even their own parliamentarian is saying the violence is state-sponsored, what exactly are we supposed to do as a continent? We keep sending our people there, they keep dying or coming back in body bags. When will we learn?