At least five people have been killed in the unrest, with dozens arrested in Johannesburg‐the country's largest city. South African Police have used tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to try and disperse angry crowds.
But the leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party‐Julius Malema‐said that while the anger was legitimate, it was not focused on the right target.

"Our anger is directed at wrong people," Malema wrote on Twitter. "Like all of us, our African brothers & sisters are selling their cheap labour for survival. The owners of our wealth is white monopoly capital; they are refusing to share it with us & the ruling party #ANC protects them."

Malema later followed up with a second tweet, suggesting "these whites must for a second keep quiet because we are dealing with a mess created by them. They are the ones who created this situation by telling us that we are poor & unemployed because 'foreigners' took our jobs. We are fighting for cramps."

Malema once belonged to the dominant African National Congress party, which has won every general election in post-apartheid South Africa. Malema was the party's Youth League president until he was expelled in 2012 for his divisive rhetoric.