Ghana has formally summoned South Africa’s envoy and accused the government in Pretoria of failing to protect Ghanaian and other West African nationals from ongoing xenophobic attacks, triggering a diplomatic confrontation that drew a public response from President Cyril Ramaphosa during the Freedom Day national commemoration in Bloemfontein on Monday.
The attacks, concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, have included incidents of looting, physical confrontations and harassment of foreign nationals, with footage of Ghanaians being told to “go fix your own country” circulating widely on social media and drawing international attention.
Ghana’s diplomatic protest
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, summoned South Africa’s acting high commissioner on Thursday 23 April and formally demanded intervention to prevent further escalation.
Ablakwa described the recent wave of attacks as “regrettable” and “a betrayal of African unity,” according to GBC Ghana Online.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights also issued a public statement deploring the attacks and calling on South African authorities to act decisively against the perpetrators.
Nigeria, whose nationals have also been targeted, saw widespread condemnation on social media following reports of businesses looted and residents displaced in Johannesburg and Durban.
Intelligence reports cited by local media indicate that further protests in Gauteng were anticipated from 27 to 29 April, with demonstrators continuing to pressure the government over the presence of foreign nationals in communities where unemployment remains high.
Ramaphosa’s Freedom Day warning
President Ramaphosa addressed the xenophobic violence directly in his Freedom Day speech, warning South Africans that the government would not tolerate vigilante action or mob justice.
“No one has the right to take the law into their own hands,” Ramaphosa said.
The warning came as Ghana’s President John Mahama was being called upon by Ghanaian civic organisations to engage Ramaphosa directly at a head-of-state level.
South Africa’s government has committed to a crackdown on perpetrators, though the mechanisms and timeline for that response had not been confirmed at the time of publication.
The diplomatic row comes at a sensitive moment for South Africa’s standing on the continent. The African Union and regional trade bodies have consistently called for free movement of people across borders as a condition of deeper economic integration.
A sustained failure to protect foreign nationals risks long-term damage to South Africa’s relationships with its continental partners, several of whom have now raised the matter formally through diplomatic channels.
How far Ghana and other affected nations escalate the situation will depend largely on whether the South African government’s promised crackdown produces visible results on the ground in the coming weeks.
