S’Africa’s Undiplomatic Language against Nigeria

South African government’s recent sarcastic request for Nigeria to identify locations in the country that were used as “drug dens” by fleeing Nigerians is a mockery of international diplomacy and an apparent indication of a subtle backing of the xenophobic attacks by the country’s lawless youths, Ejiofor Alike reports

The recent comments by the South Africa’s minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, against Nigeria have again confirmed what many perceive as Nigeria’s rising global status as the butt of the joke among the comity of nations.  

Nigeria was once a highly respected and feared ‘Giant of Africa’ that enjoyed respect globally and played significant roles in the liberation of South Africa.

However, long years of maladministration and lack of regards for the lives and welfare of Nigerians by successive Nigerian leaders have reduced her status to such a ridiculous level and made the lives of Nigerians very cheap both within and outside the country.

Indeed, flaunting the Nigerian passport outside the shores of the country, which used to be a thing of pride in the past, now makes one a crime suspect, who must prove his innocence.

It was not surprising that the South African government allowed their lawless youths to unleash xenophobic attacks on Nigerians, without the highest level of Nigeria’s political leadership rising in condemnation.

In one of the weak press statements issued by a junior government official and spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, the federal government merely sought to “formally convey the Nigerian Government’s profound concern regarding recent events that have the potential to impact the established cordial relations between Nigeria and South Africa.”

Lawless South Africans made the country a hostile place for both documented and undocumented migrants.

They set a June 30 deadline for black Africans to leave the country, as if the South African government had relinquished leadership to the angry mob.

“I am very scared and traumatised,” Esnat Joseph, a 36-year-old Malawian woman, told the BBC as she tried to comfort her crying one-year-old triplets.

According to reports, she fled her home in an informal settlement in the port city of Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal province, seeking refuge in an open field where up to 7,000 foreigners – mainly Malawians – began gathering with their belongings weeks before the expiration of the deadline.

“The people came to my house and told me: ‘You must leave. We don’t want you people to stay here any longer; so, you have to go to your country.’ There were 10 and they were carrying weapons,” she said, describing how the group of South African men were holding machetes and whips.

“They cut my husband on his head and his neck. They were holding his neck like they wanted to kill him. Because of God he still survived, but he’s in the hospital.”

As Nigerians were being attacked and killed in South Africa, the Nigerian government did not rise to the occasion with a proportionate response, except to repatriate some citizens.

It was Ghana that demonstrated a strong and responsible leadership by postponing a visit by South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa following the attacks that resulted in hundreds of Ghanaians being repatriated from his country.

BBC reported that diplomatic tensions between the two nations heightened after a video went viral of Emmanuel Asamoah, a young Ghanaian living in South Africa, being confronted and told to ”go fix his country”.

Ramaphosa had long planned a visit to Ghana in the first week of August, but the Ghanaian government spokesman, Felix Kwakye Ofosu told the BBC the visit would not happen for the time being.

”We sent them a communication indicating that it would be best to defer the visit in view of the present climate around xenophobia,” he explained.

South Africa had sought to play things down, with presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya reiterating the country’s unwavering commitment to “deepening cooperation” between the “two sister nations” and “advancing the African Agenda”.

“The two countries will continue to engage through diplomatic channels to identify a mutually convenient date,” he said.

Over 118 Nigerians were reportedly killed in xenophobic incidents between 2015 and 2026, but the highest political leadership in Nigeria did not make a bold statement warning the South African government to halt this lawlessness and threatening retaliatory measures.

The Nigerian government recently confirmed that another two of its citizens were killed in South Africa.

A statement from the foreign ministry said Emeka Charles Iroegbu was “reportedly killed” on June 28 by police officers “using gruesome interrogation techniques”, while unidentified assailants had killed shop owner Musa Yunana Joe, aka Big Joe, on the same day.

In the absence of any threat of retaliatory measures by the Nigerian government, South Africa recently added insult to injury, mocking Nigeria for planning to request for compensation for properties abandoned by Nigerians fleeing the country.

South Africa sarcastically asked Nigeria to identify alleged “drug dens” linked to its citizens.

The acting Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Temitope Ajayi, had stated that the federal government would seek compensation for businesses and properties abandoned by Nigerians returning from South Africa under its voluntary evacuation programme.

“In terms of the businesses, just three days ago, myself and the South African Deputy Minister of Finance were together, and we were discussing this. I took up the discussion with her, and we have agreed that we are going to ask our people who are returning to begin to document what they are leaving behind, and that was the message yesterday before this set that is due to land in Lagos.”

But South Africa’s minister in the presidency, Ntshavheni, rebuffed those possibilities of compensation at a press conference.

The minister instead asked the Nigerian government to provide information on locations allegedly used for drug-related activities.

“We’ll be interested to know where the drug dens of Nigerians are. So, they can show us where they have been holding the drugs so that we can clean the drugs in South Africa quite urgently,” Ntshavheni said.

“So, there’s no compensation that will come from the government. Those who leave their properties, if they are properly legally registered in the country, they can dispose of the properties in the property market in South Africa — whether it’s a movable or immovable property. And we are going to seriously appreciate being told where the drug dens are.”

From South Africa’s reaction to the postponement of President Ramaphosa’s planned visit to Ghana by the Ghanaian government, and the country’s response to the plan by the Nigerian government to seek compensation for Nigerians that lost properties, it is evident that Ghana was accorded respect while Nigeria was mocked in very clear terms.

The implication is that Ghana now enjoys more respect than the once ‘Giant of Africa.’

History will be unfair to successive Nigerian governments whose bad governance forced Nigerians to flee their country in search of greener pastures and also made the country a laughing stock in the comity of nations.