Malema: Stop targeting spaza shops, focus on reclaiming the mines

Economic debate, not xenophobia, must guide action, EFF leader says. Speaking at the funeral service of uMkhonto weSizwe Party parliamentary deputy chief whip Mzikayise Ntshingila on Sunday, EFF president Julius Malema urged South Africans to stop concentrating anger on foreign nationals who run spaza shops and to direct their efforts at reclaiming control of strategic sectors such as the mining industry.

From spaza shops to strategic ownership

Malema said public mobilisation against foreign-owned spaza shops distracts from what he called the true struggle over economic ownership and transformation. He asked why people organise strikes and protests over spaza shops but do not take similar action to challenge ownership in mining.

“Why is there a strike to fight for spaza shops, but there is no strike to block the roads and claim the mines, and say these people who are mining here are the same as those that own spaza shops, they are not from here.”

He called for South Africa’s “strategic means of production” to be returned to those he described as the “rightful owners.”

On international reaction and internal divisions

Malema suggested international powers had shown little response to tensions around migration and xenophobia because those issues did not affect their interests. He proposed testing the international response by checking passports in affluent areas, saying this would reveal where outside powers would intervene.

“There is no international response. We are concentrating on each other; they are making us lose the bigger picture.”

He warned against divisions within the working class and urged unity among African people, saying such divisions weaken the push for economic transformation.

Priority for redress

Malema said economic transformation must be grounded in redress for colonial and apartheid-era inequality. He argued that the African working class and women should be emphasised because he said their situation is worse.

“African working class and the white working class are not of the same status. We ought to emphasise the African working class because their situation is worse. We ought to emphasise women because their situation is worse.”

He added that prioritising redress was not motivated by hatred but by correcting historical injustice.

Unity in mourning and politics

Malema said the death of Mzikayise Ntshingila should be a moment of unity, noting Ntshingila’s role in parliamentary cooperation and in the formation of the Progressive Caucus Charter.