Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a South African political party, has come to the defence of Burna Boy, Nigerian singer, saying that “there’s no mascot that can stop him from performing in the country.”
The Afro-fusion crooner is in the centre of a protracted controversy after he had vowed never to visit South Africa in the wake of the xenophobia attacks in the country in September.
Few weeks after Burna Boy’s avowal, TheCable Lifestyle had reported that he was billed to headline ‘Africa Unite’, a concert, which is expected to take place at Cape Town at The Lawns on November 23, and Tshwane’s Sun Arena on November 24.
The show is aimed to mend the cracks in the relationship between both countries.
The development, however, did not go down too well with quite a number of persons and groups in South Africa, who objected to the inclusion of Burna Boy in the concert.
“Whoever may have deemed that the country needs a PR exercise of this nature would have done so largely as a result of the callous, misleading and unwarranted incitement by this very artist. Not only did he (Burna Boy) spread falsehoods through his extensive platform, he literally incited violence and hate,” read a letter from Tshwane Entertainment Collective (TEC), a South African group.
AKA, South African rapper, also did not let matters slide as he demanded for apology from Burna Boy.
Seeing how far the incident has escalated, Malema, who is a member of the country’s parliament, swooped in to defend Burna Boy.
“Looking forward to receiving and being entertained by my brother @burnaboy here at his home called South Africa. There’s no mascot that can stop him from performing, he’s one of our own and we will protect him. We must resolutely oppose regionalism led by political illiterates,” he wrote.
Looking forward to receiving and being entertained by my brother @burnaboy here at his home called South Africa. There's no mascot that can stop him from performing, he's one of our own and we will protect him. We must resolutely oppose regionalism led by political illiterates.
— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) November 14, 2019
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His comment has, however, opened the floodgates of criticism on his Twitter page.
Meanwhile, Burna Boy is yet to speak on the development.
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