South Africa’s opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says it understands and fully supports Africans who have boycotted South Africa following the recent spate of violence aimed at foreign nationals.

Various African countries have retaliated to the spate of attacks, through demonstrations and boycotts, with even high-profile personalities taking to social media denouncing the ongoing violence.

At least seven people, including some South Africans, have died in the violence, which has seen several shops looted across some of Gauteng’s three big metros and numerous suburbs.

EFF leader, Julius Malema, who said white capital and the ANC government had to take full responsibility for the outbreak of violence, added the rand had been performing better than it had in recent months, instead of struggling as the country burned.

He said the violence should affect everyone in the country, including its markets.

Malema had some choice words for the private sector, which he said was a “polite way” of saying white people.

In dealing with the argument that some have made for the violence, that foreign nationals steal jobs from South Africans, Malema said it was the private sector that was doing that.