The Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Ghana’s Parliament, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has charged the African Union to consider relocating its Pan-African Parliament from Midrand, South Africa as part of measures to sanction the country for recurrent violent attacks on foreign nationals.
According to Mr Ablakwa, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa must also be stripped off his pending role as chairperson of the African Union for 2020.
In a post on his Facebook page, Mr Ablakwa said South Africa had lost every moral justification to keep the Pan African Parliament after yet another attack by South African citizens on nationals of African countries.
He posted: “We cannot accept the unending waves of xenophobic attacks in South Africa which is but a painful betrayal of the African solidarity against apartheid.
“Perhaps it is time to relocate the Pan-African Parliament to another country. SA has lost every moral justification to keep it”.
Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa, announced as chairperson of the African Union for 2020 has condemned the attacks as xenophobic and unacceptable.
“There can be no justification for any South African to attack people from other countries,” he said on Tuesday.
Dozens of people were arrested in Johannesburg on Monday. At least five people have been killed in the unrest.
Several African governments have issued warnings to their citizens over the violence.
Attacks on businesses run by “foreign nationals is something totally unacceptable, something that we cannot allow to happen in South Africa,” Mr Ramaphosa said in a video posted to Twitter.
“I want it to stop immediately,” he added.
Ramaphosa will take over from Egyptian President Fattah el-Sisi, who is AU chair for 2019.