Helen Zille has accused EFF leader Julius Malema of hate speech after comments he made about targeting white men instead of black foreigners.

Delivering a speech in Mamusa, North West, on Sunday ahead of by-elections there, Malema said it was wrong to target Nigerians, adding that black people were “afraid of collapsing the statues of white people”.

“As black people, we kill Nigerians, accusing them of selling drugs, and we kill Zimbabweans, accusing them of stealing our jobs.

“Yet the white man committed genocide against us, took land, raped our mothers, killed our child in Coligny for picking up a sunflower. They kill our people saying they have mistaken them for baboons.

“You’re even afraid to collapse the statues of white people. Why? Because you hate yourself.”