Pretoria Accuses Ghana and Nigeria of Spreading False News Over Xenophobia to Isolate South Africa
Image Source: Daily Maverick
By Mpho Tumelo Modise | EZA News
South Africa’s deteriorating relations with West African states have entered a new and more formal phase of confrontation.
Pretoria – South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation has escalated its response to criticism from Ghana and Nigeria over xenophobic violence in the country, formally accusing both governments of deliberately spreading false information in an effort to isolate South Africa diplomatically on the African continent.
The statement from Pretoria represents a significant hardening of tone from a government that has, in recent months, sought to manage its image amid sustained international attention on attacks against foreign nationals – primarily from Zimbabwe, Malawi, and other southern African countries.
Ghana and Nigeria have been vocal in demanding greater protections for their citizens living and working in South Africa, with both governments summoning South African diplomatic representatives for formal censure. Pretoria’s counter-allegation that these diplomatic interventions constitute the deliberate spreading of falsehoods marks a departure from the more conciliatory language the government has used in addressing the xenophobia crisis in multilateral settings.
The diplomatic friction comes at a delicate moment. South Africa holds a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and has positioned itself as a broker of African solidarity. The public fracture with two of West Africa’s largest and most influential states – each with substantial diaspora populations in South Africa – threatens to undermine that positioning and complicates the country’s stated commitment to continental integration under the African Union framework.
The AU, which has consistently called for free movement and dignity for all African nationals, has not yet formally responded to the bilateral tensions.
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