President Cyril Ramaphosa says the ANC needs to lead the debate on immigration in an orderly manner to ensure it remains infused with principles of pan-Africanism and is not overtaken by right-wing sentiments.

Ramaphosa was addressing the ANC national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla held at the weekend.

“The lekgotla noted with concern the rise of right-wing ideology and its adverse impact in international politics, in particular on our beloved African continent.

“The ANC is urged to continue to mobilise progressively for this on the continent and globally to advance a progressive international agenda to counter the strong hegemonic agendas being imposed in some parts of the world.

“A rising and increasingly prosperous Africa will impact progressively on SA’s prospects as well,” he said.

This follows a week in which EFF leaders visited businesses in Midrand, Gauteng, to ask management to provide a report to assess how many of their employees were foreign nationals and how many were South Africans.

EFF leader Julius Malema has appealed to employers to give South Africans preference as the country faces an all-time high youth unemployment rate of 66.5%.

However, he also said: “We want to make an emphasis to the owners of restaurants that no-one should stop employing Zimbabweans and say the EFF said they don’t want them.”

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