President John Dramani Mahama has described as “unfortunate” and “regrettable” the recent wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
The attacks so far have claimed some 10 lives.
President Mahama in an interaction with the media in Nigeria charged the youth in South Africa to be mindful of their history and how much each African country contributed to liberating South Africa.
The President also charged the South African government to ensure the development never reoccures.
“It’s most regrettable and most unfortunate. I think that the young people of South Africa do not know what happened before they gained their freedom.”
Africans stood behind South Africa
“The whole of this continent stood behind South Africa, the whole of Africa stood behind South Africa to fight apartheid. Indeed for several of the countries where their citizens were brutalized in South Africa, these are countries that were called front line space that haboured the freedom fighters of South Africa that gave them safe haven, gave them passports to be able to avoid the clutches of the apartheid regime and even Nigeria. So it is regrettable that the same people who fought against apartheid are being attacked in this way,” Mahama reminded the youth of South Africa.
South African government must sit up
President Mahama further called on the South African government to prosecute those found culpable in the attacks in order to deter others who want to indulge in such acts in future.
“I think that the government must sit up and take strong action, those who have been involved in this atrocities must be brought to book and must be punished so that it serves as a deterrent so it doesn’t happen in future.”
He noted that “the unfortunate thing is that this is not the first time, it keeps flaring up, and so while we are condemning this incident we must work with the South African government to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. We are trying to create an integrated continent where our people can move freely amongst our countries. This does not set a good example for integration especially South Africa that have investment all over our countries.”
–
By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey & Raymond Acquah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin