Content creator and current affairs commentator Amahle-Imvelo Jaxa says she will take a break from TikTok after receiving death threats following a video she posted.
In the video titled ‘Afrophobia is Not Going to Fix Our Economy’, Jaxa shared her views on the March and March movement, a citizen-led campaign calling for stricter immigration enforcement and the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals.
She also discussed Afrophobia and xenophobia, while arguing that South Africa’s challenges are linked more to governance than immigration.
“My actual point was to underline that we have a governance issue more than we have an illegal immigration issue, and that for as long as we don’t treat the disease, we end up spending our lives punishing the symptom,” she said.
Jaxa said she has since received demands to remove the video, as well as threats on social media.
“There is a call to unfollow me, there are threats in my DMs and my comments are filled with insults about my accent and my vocabulary,” she said.
She added that while she anticipated some backlash, she will not delete the video.
“Although there is a full-on attack on me, what trumps the insults is the opinions and perspectives of people who disagree with me respectfully. These people have introduced new stories, new thoughts and new facts, and that for me is more meaningful than a gotcha moment,” she said.
Jaxa on taking a break
Jaxa said she will take time off to reassess her content on TikTok.
“Some of the insults did hurt. Some of the death threats did seem real. And I think I just need to take a little bit of a time out,” she said.
She added that she will no longer produce subjective opinion-based videos.
“I am never going to make subjective videos ever again. I’ve heard everybody loud and clear,” she said.
