Julius Malema's Restaurant Inspections Condemned by Labour Department, South Africans Think It Was a Flop

• Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has been called out by the Department of Employment and Labour for inspecting restaurants
• The department says such inspections can only be carried out by them and citizens should never take the law into their hands, including politicians
• Social media users have mixed reviews about the EFF's actions, however, some people have urged the party to inspect other industries

JOHANNESBURG - Julius Malema, the commander-in-chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters, caused a huge stir in South Africa for recently heading to restaurants to check the ratio of how many South Africans are employed versus foreign nationals.

In addition to checking ratios, Malema stated that the raids were also meant to protect foreign nationals from being exploited by business owners.

Malema's unauthorised inspections gained attention from the Department of Employment and Labour, which condemned Malema for his actions on Wednesday, 19 January.

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Malema and a few members of his political organisation journeyed to the Mall of Africa. The events of the day were well-documented on the EFF's Twitter page as well.

In a statement issued by the department, it highlighted that such inspections can only be conducted by the labour department, according to TimesLIVE. The department also stated that if anyone has suspicions that a business is not following labour laws, they should report that business to the department and not take their own action.

Malema gives feedback on his restaurant visits

At the end of the raids, Malema addressed the media and gave an account of what he found out after visiting three restaurants at the Mall of Africa. The Red Berets leader visited Kream, Doppio Zero and Ponta, reports News24.

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Malema found that 50% of the employees at Kream were South African citizens and most of Ponta and Doppio Zero's staff members were SA locals. Malema stated that he was not against the hiring of foreign nationals but wanted business owners to give preference to South Africans.

South Africans conflicted by EFF's actions

On social media, some people praised Malema and his party for carrying out inspections and asked him to check the employment ratios at security guard companies. Some people were not happy with the EFF for carrying out the raids.

Here are a few comments:

@NtsieniJustice said:

"You must check everything, even security companies."

@NdivhuhoGodfre1 said:

"Please after visiting restaurants, visit industrial companies, security industries & constructions companies."

@AOriginates said:

"Others are working without contracts, please check that as well, especially these construction and manufacturing companies."

@mahlalini21 said:

"Attention-seeking all the time. EFF badly needs new leadership if the party is to progress in 2024."

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@IKwedini said:

"What happened to Pan Africanism, no African is a foreigner in Africa, open borders... voters showed you flames?"

@stnicktruthonly said:

"This was such a failure"

DA slams EFF’s restaurant inspections, calls them out for harassing people at their places of work

Briefly News previously reported that on 19 January, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema, visited several restaurants at the Mall of Africa to inspect workplace policies and practices.

Some of the criteria the EFF focused on were working hours, remuneration and the ratio of south Africans to foreign workers. However, the Democratic Alliance (DA) did not support the EFF's actions.

Michael Cardo, the DA's employment and labour shadow minister, accused the EFF of expressing xenophobic views by checking how many foreign nationals are employed at the restaurants they inspected, TimesLIVE reports.

Source: Briefly News