Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces and Staff Command College, Dr Vladmir Antwi-Danso, has attributed the xenophobic attacks by South Africans (SA) against other African nationals to apartheid mentality.
Dr Antwi-Danso says the policy that governed relations between the white minority and the non-white majority of SA during the 20th Century has evolved and shifted the hatred against the whites to fellow black Africans.
Speaking on Adom FM on Monday, September 4, 2019, Dr Antwi-Danso said the “SA government’s failure to fight corruption and curb unemployment has repeatedly initiated the act yearly.”
He described the “rationale” for the attacks as uncalled for since” it is impossible to bar people from traveling to other countries.”
Dr Antwi-Danso told host Akua Boakyewaa Yiadom that ”though Africa lacks a centralised court to punish perpetrators of such crimes, the African Union (AU) can ban SA as meted out to Sudan, Nigeria and Burkina Faso some time ago.
“The SA economy must develop for unemployment to go down, laws must work in there and we must all show a little outrage just as Nigerians have done,” he added.
However, the International Relations Expert explained that showing a little outrage does not mean people should exhibit reprisal attacks on SA nationals in their countries.
Speaking on same FM station, an International Diplomatic Expert, Farouk Al-Wahab said “African leaders do not have balls to stop SA for the repeated acts over the years.”
He said despite Ghana being “the most influential diplomatic state in the AU, it has not done anything about what is happening in SA as a diplomatic giant within the region.”
Chairman of Parliament’s Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Frank Annor Dompreh has meanwhile blamed the attacks on utterances by SA President, Cyril Ramophosa when he said “South Africans should take over South Africa”, in a statement he made recently.
He condemned the act and asked every African to be responsible in ensuring that such things do not happen.
Background
South African nationals instigated xenophobic attacks against other African nationals last week after a South African taxi driver was allegedly shot dead by a suspected Nigerian drug dealer in the capital, Pretoria.
The attacks spread to Johannesburg, the economic hub, this week and more than 50 shops and several vehicles were destroyed.