Yet again we must condemn a wave of violent Afrophobia in South Africa. It has come to the attention of the Economic Fighters League that afrophobic sentiments have yet again come to the surface in South Africa, taking the form of violence and indignity organised under anti-African movement OperationDudula. This latest wave follows the irresponsible and criminal remarks made by Limpopo MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba, in which she berated and accused a Zimbabwean hospital patient of seeking treatment at a government hospital at the expense of South Africans.

The viral video of this disgusting incident has ignited anti-African protests and prompted #OperationDudula protestors in Atteridgeville to block other Africans from seeking healthcare at Kalafong Hospital. CiC Julius Malema of South Africa’s EFF necessarily condemned the actions of Minister Ramathuba and called for a revocation of her medical licence, leading OperationDudula protestors to burn EFF flags.

We stand in solidarity with Africans in South Africa, and commend the EFF for condemning the afrophobia and educating South Africans on the need for African solidarity. We condemn the violence and the continued silence of African leaders on this recurring issue.

It is well known that the people of South Africa are suffering. Their economy is in crisis, youth unemployment is astronomically high, and the people are still, three decades after the end of apartheid, dispossessed of their land. The political and financial elite of South Africa have successful turned the capitalism introduced by colonialism to their advantage, keeping the majority of those dispossessed by apartheid in the same poverty and strife that their fathers and mothers suffered.

We must remind our brothers and sisters in South Africa that capitalism is to blame, not your African brothers and sisters. The same politicians who scapegoat Africans for your strife are living in obscene wealth while you
suffer. The same politicians pointing you at your brothers and sisters are failing to deliver on the many promises they have made you since 1994. Do not be deceived by their inciteful vocabulary. They are to blame for your struggles, not your fellow Africans.

The struggles you face are common across the continent. Youth unemployment, dispossession of our land and resources, poverty are issues the majority of African youth can relate to. As such, at this critical moment, the people of South Africa should be seeking to UNITE with their brothers and sisters. Only in unity will this capitalist scourge be eliminated for once and for all.

The answer to dispossession in South Africa, poverty in Ghana, corruption in Kenya, oppression in Uganda, violence in Cameroon, dictatorship in Togo, and all the struggles in between can and must only be African Unity.

Africa MUST unite, now.

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