The Economic Freedom Fighters does not need the votes of xenophobic people, party leader Julius Malema said on Sunday.

“If you are not going to vote for EFF because we say you must love Africans you can keep your vote,” Malema told supporters at the North West launch of the EFF’s elections manifesto in Lethobong, Rustenburg.

“We do not want a vote of people who are xenophobic. We do not want votes of people who suffer from self-hate. Africa is one, without the unity of Africa we will be exploited forever by Europe, by America, and now by China,” he said.

Malema urged EFF supporters not to attack foreign nationals. “Let us love one another, let us unite as Africans, because the unity of Africans is a threat to white people. It is white people who thrive on division because their principle is divide and rule. Stop self-hate. Love Africans the way you love yourself.”

Malema said Africa was “not a continent, but a country”, adding that borders were “imposed” on Africans. “These borders were not designed by us, they were imposed on us by the boers,” he claimed.

According to reports, there has been a recent spate of attacks on foreign nationals in, among others, KwaZulu-Natal, where more than 150 foreigners living in an informal settlement in Clare Estate in Durban had to flee the area after they were allegedly attacked by a group of men.