‘We Don’t Want Africans Here’ — Says South Africans In Fresh Xenophobic Protest

Viral videos on social media have depicted South Africans showing hostility to African immigrants, triggering fresh concerns of xenophobia.

In one such video, a group of South Africans are seen confronting a Ghanaian, questioning the migrant’s decision to move to South Africa.

“This thing of you guys moving from one country to the other, its no longer working,” a lady said on behalf of the group.

“We don’t want these African people anymore. We’re tired of seeing African migrants moving all over the world, refusing to fix your own countries. Now we’re making it very clear to you guys: we don’t want you here, we want you to fix your countries.

“Now you came here with a travelling document, you came with a passport. You know that you’re a visitor, now you’ve decided to integrate into our communities. You know very well what you’re doing is wrong. We can’t come to Ghana and do what you’re doing.”

A male South African soon began gruelling the Ghanaian over the legality of his document, accusing him of fraud and forcing him to warn other Ghanaians to leave South Africa before they are targeted.

In another video, some South Africans were seen assaulting a man who was reportedly Ghanian.

A separate clip showed a South Africa man filming himself at night and criticising foreigners for “sleeping comfortably in their homes while we, the South Africans, are out here in the cold”.

“They can’t come here and take our sleep away from us,” he said, adding that “they must go back to their countries”.

The videos began circulating on social media on Tuesday.

Residents in Mthatha, a town in the Eastern Cape province, are scheduled to protest on Thursday over growing concerns about the presence of foreign nationals, and “limited” job opportunities for locals.

Meanwhile, Samuel Ablakwa, Ghana’s minister for foreign affairs, described the videos as “extremely disturbing”.

Ablakwa said he held a phone conversation with Ronald Lamola, his South African counterpart, on Wednesday over the matter.

“The South African Foreign Minister has expressed his empathy with the victims and promised full scale investigations into the depressing incidents,” he said.

Ablakwa added that the Ghanaian high commission in South Africa has located the victim in the viral video and are offering consular assistance.

“He is doing very well. No Ghanaian life has been lost. We urge calm and confidence in our collective capacity to protect Ghanaians,” he said.

“We are determined to guarantee the protection of all citizens. May these regrettable incidents never quench our Pan-African love and solidarity for each other. The overwhelming majority of Africans are united and share an unbreakable bond — we shall not be divided by the hatred of a few fringe elements.”

Meanwhile, ahead of the planned protests, Yirenyi Darko, chairman of the Ghanaian community in Mthatha, raised concerns over the safety of other Africans “especially Nigerians and Zimbabweans”.

“We are only trusting God for protection. For now, in the Eastern Cape, it is not as extreme as in other provinces, and there has not been recent harassment in Mthatha. But generally, the situation remains worrying,” he said.

Darko urged Ghanaians to take precautionary steps to ensure their safety.