There's a new kid on the block who has his sights set on the 2019 elections – and wants nothing to do with other kids from outside South Africa.
South African First, a fiercely nationalist political party, has a following of more than 10 000, who are concerned about foreigners taking over.
The party was recently registered with the Electoral Commission of SA.
Yesterday, its leader said its main mandate was to do away with foreigners who threatened patriotic South Africans’ livelihoods.
“Their tuckshops, hair salons and businesses are crippling our people,” party leader Mario Khumalo said.
He calls himself a nationalist, and said he was merely voicing what most South Africans were thinking and talking about behind closed doors.
“As clichéd as it sounds, I am not xenophobic. I am just a nationalist, oriented towards gaining and maintaining self-governance, or full sovereignty, over a territory of historical significance,” he said.
“Nationalism holds that a nation should govern itself, free from outside interference, and is linked to the concept of self-determination.”
According to Khumalo, the need for the new political party was sparked by research three years ago on the effects that immigrants, especially illegals ones, had on South Africa.