Firebrand South African lawmaker Julius Malema said on Friday (October 22) that he has been vaccinated because Jews have been.

The leader of a far-left opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters told a crowd of 2,000 students in Cape Town: “I’m vaccinated because I saw Jews, Jewish people, vaccinated," he said to a small smattering of laughter.

"The Jews don’t play with their lives," he told students at the Bellville Campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Malema is currently campaigning in Cape Town ahead of local government elections on November 1.

He went on to say: "This vaccine is the first vaccine to be tested on white people. Normally they don’t test it on white people, they test it on us. Those trials were run in the white countries as well.”

Referring to Vuyani Pambo, the party's national spokesperson who was sitting behind him, he claimed Pambo isn't vaccinated and has urged him to take the vaccine.

"We want Sputnik, we want Sinovac, we want alternative vaccines so that are people are not forced with European (vaccines). Our people must be spoiled of choice. Let those who don’t want to vaccinate, don’t vaccinate. Like this guy who’s always next to me."

In 2018, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies denounced comments made by Malema about Jews, in which he is reported to have said, "There’s a group of white right-wingers who are being trained by Jews in Pretoria to be snipers.” The SAJBD said the comments were "typical of his attention-seeking behaviour" and "aimed at creating racial tension."

Julius Malema, leader of South Africa's left-wing EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters), says he got vaccinated because of Jewish people. He said got vaccinated when he saw Jewish people getting vaccinated because Jewish people don't play with their lives.

Malema was speaking to about 2000 students the Bellville Campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He is currently campaigning in Cape Town ahead of local government elections on 1 November.

Malema has advocated for vaccination but is against mandatory vaccination. He says as a Marxist he believes in science and spoke out against Covid 19 and Coronavirus conspiracy theories.

Referring to Vuyani Pambo, the party's national spokesperson who was sitting behind him, he claimed Pambo isn't vaccinated and has urged him to take the vaccine. Malema also wants South Africans to be offered the Sputnik and Sinovac vaccine as options.

Malema said: "I’m vaccinated because I saw Jews, Jewish people, vaccinated, he said to laughs. The Jews don’t play with their lives.

"This vaccine is the first vaccine to be tested on white people> Normally they don’t test it on white people, they test it on us. Those trials were run in the white countries as well.

"We want Sputnik, we want Sinovac, we want alternative vaccines so that are people are not forced with European (vaccines). Our people must be spoiled of choice. Let those who don’t want to vaccinate, don’t vaccinate. Like this guy who’s always next to me."