South Africans don’t hate Nigerians, only a few criminals attack them— Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has dismissed the notion that there is a collectively held animosity towards Nigerians by South Africans, blaming the killing of Nigerians on a few criminals.

Ramaphosa, who is currently in Nigeria, said this while fielding questions from state house correspondents during a joint press conference he held with President Muhammadu Buhari.

He acknowledged that Nigerians helped end apartheid in South Africa.

Ramaphosa said it would be wrong to assume that Nigerians were being targeted as a result of xenophobia.

“There has been quite a number of incidents in our country where foreign nationals some of whom are Nigerians have lost their lives and are being attacked,” he said.

“I will like to say here and now that, that has been as a result of criminal activity among our own people which we are focusing on from a criminal element point of view.

“I want to state here and now that South Africans do not have any form of negative disposition or hatred towards Nigerians and in the main Nigerians in South Africa and a number of places of our country live side by side, they cooperate very well and some are in the corporate structures of our various companies and some are traders and some are into a number of things.

“So, I want to dispel this notion that when a Nigerian loses his or her life in South Africa, it is as a result of an intentional action by South Africans against Nigerians. That is simply not true.

“You will know that South Africa has a number of challenges, one of which is criminality which is all pervasive. We have over a number of years been bringing down a number of crime in our country and we are working on a concerted basis to ensure that crime does come down. And the criminality that we have is borne out of a number of factors, one of those is unemployment among people. 27 percent of South Africans are unemployed which amount to about 9 million and most of these are young people.

Ramaphosa acknowledge that there is high level of poverty and unemployment in South Africa, blaming this “our very sad history of apartheid misrule”.

“There is still inequality in South Africa, a few people are extremely rich and majority of our people are very poor and all these factors and other social factors have contributed to the high levels of crime,” he said.

Read also: FG launches campaign against fake news

“And criminality is something like I said that we are focusing on, doing everything to bring it down. And on top of everything else, people in various parts of the country who get engulfed in acts of criminality, majority of them are South Africans and some of them will be foreign nationals and will either be Nigerians and other people from other countries.

“These are acts of criminality and I want to end by saying that, when we were involved in our struggle, we said that the South Africa that we are fighting for is the South Africa which will regard everyone who lives in South Africa on the basis of equality and respect for human right. And we said that South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it.

“So, the Nigerians who are in in South Africa are also part of our community, they can never be targeted on an intentional basis as people who must either be attacked or killed and when that happens, l will like all of us to see that as an act of criminality which in the main affect many South Africans in the various parts of our country. In that regard, we will like that you should never think that it is being done against Nigerians intentionally.

“It is an act of criminality and our government is determined to bring the levels of criminality down and also to go after those who perpetrate these acts of criminality. So, that anyone who attacks anyone in South Africa will be pursued with the might of the law to make sure they are brought to justice.”

Ramaphosa also revealed that his Nigeria trip was his first visit to any country aside multilateral summits, as well as countries in his region, and that this was deliberate because of his administration’s focus on African unity and development.

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now