South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, has assured that migration concerns between Ghana and South Africa will not damage the long-standing relationship between the two countries.
His remarks come after his recent visit to Ghana as a special envoy of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, during which he delivered a message to President John Dramani Mahama.
Mr Lamola said both governments agreed that migration-related challenges should be handled without affecting the strong diplomatic ties that have existed between Ghana and South Africa for many years.
“There was an agreement between ourselves and Ghana that the current migration-related challenges will not stand in the way of South Africa-Ghana bilateral relations. It does not impact the Ghana-South Africa bilateral relations because South Africa and Ghana have got long enduring challenges, good friendship and relations,” he said.
He noted that the concerns raised by Ghana had given South Africa the opportunity to explain its position on migration and the treatment of foreign nationals.
Mr Lamola acknowledged that every sovereign country has the right to enforce its immigration laws. However, he stressed that such enforcement must be carried out in a lawful, orderly and humane manner.
“All countries have got the right to enforce, it’s within the sovereign state to enforce immigration laws but immigration must be regular, must be orderly, in line with the protocols of the AU, of our own SADC. It should not be a disorder immigration,” he said.
The South African minister also recognised Ghana’s concerns over reports involving migrants but warned that irregular migration should never justify people taking the law into their own hands.
He strongly condemned acts of vigilantism and assured that the South African government does not support the unlawful treatment of migrants.
Mr Lamola added that authorities remain committed to investigating incidents involving attacks or the mistreatment of migrants and will ensure that anyone found to have broken the law is held accountable.
