The Nation Newspaper

Tag: South Africa

  • Xenophobic attacks: Zuma apologises to Mozambique  

    Xenophobic attacks: Zuma apologises to Mozambique  

    South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday in Maputo apologised to Mozambique for the recent xenophobic attacks against foreigners living in South Africa, in which three Mozambicans died.

    Zuma, who was on a two-day state visit to Mozambique, said that such acts had no justification, taking into consideration the brotherhood ties between the people from the two nations.

    He said that from all indications the attacks were committed by a minority group that does not represent the whole South Africa.

    “It is important for us to apologise for the acts of a small minority of South Africans which does not represent the desire of South African people.

    “We have good relations with a number of countries, including Mozambique, and we never had problems,” said Zuma.

    Oldemiro Baloi, Mozambican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said during the talks between Zuma and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, both countries agreed to reinforce and improve the implementation of agreements so far signed.

    He said both leaders went through the latest events that mark both nations, among them, xenophobia and deportation, and they concluded that they must improve communication so that such acts are reduced to the lowest incidents as possible.

    Baloi said the two countries also talked about the political and economic situation between the two nations, as well as their presence in the Southern Africa Development Community.

    The Minister said his president has accepted an invitation for a state visit to South Africa, issued by Zuma during the talks.

    He said during his stay, Zuma would also address the Mozambican Parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

    Zuma had lived in Mozambique during the struggle against the South African Apartheid regime, until its independence in 1994.

    Mozambique became one of the African National Congress (ANC) rear bases in the southern African region during the struggle.

  • Protesters want Burundi president’s third term bid halted

    Protesters want Burundi president’s third term bid halted

    Protest organisers in Burundi on Wednesday urged African leaders meeting in Tanzania to demand that their president halt his bid for a third term, a development that has triggered the nation’s worst crisis since an ethnically-fuelled civil war ended in 2005.

    Protesters have taken to the streets for more than two weeks saying Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for another five years violates the constitution and the Arusha peace deal that ended the civil war.

    Both documents limit a president to two terms, Reuters says.

    More than 20 people have been killed since unrest erupted, according to an unofficial count by activists.

    East African leaders and a top official from continental heavyweight South Africa met in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam to discuss the crisis that has already spilled over into a region with a history of ethnic conflict.

    More than 50,000 people have fled to neighbouring states. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said the crisis was heading towards a “worst case scenario” that could see 300,000 people fleeing, some to other parts of Burundi and others abroad.

    That would mean displacing about three percent of the 10 million-strong population in one of Africa’s most crowded nations.

    “We expect the east African heads of state to tell President Nkurunziza that the constitution of Burundi and the Arusha peace agreement do not allow him to run for a third term,” Pacifique Nininahazwe, a civil society activist and protest leader, told Reuters.

    Nkurunziza, 51, who once led a rebel group from the majority Hutu population against the minority Tutsi-led army in the war, has pointed to a constitutional court ruling that said his first term did not count as he was chosen by lawmakers, not voted in.

  • Lonmin plans 3,500 job cuts in South Africa

    Lonmin plans 3,500 job cuts in South Africa

    The world’s third-largest platinum producer Lonmin is planning to cut 3,500 jobs in South Africa through voluntary layoffs to slash costs as the price of the metal falls, it said.

    “We are in talks with our employees, our unions about reducing labour costs by 10 percent which may result in a reduction of head count of 3,500 colleagues,” Lonmin CEO Ben Magara told a news conference.

    Lonmin, which owns the Marikana mine in South Africa where 34 workers were shot dead by police during a wildcat strike in 2012, said it had held “constructive” talks with trade unions over its plans.

    “We are having to take this tough decision because it is important to protect the majority of our jobs,” said Magara.

    The company hopes that unions can convince the workers to consider voluntary layoffs or early retirement.

    But the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the minority union at Lonmin, has vowed to fight against any job losses.

    “We are not happy with the decision,” NUM secretary general Frans Baleni told AFP.

    “To us it doesn’t matter if it’s voluntary, retrenchment is still job losses.”

    Platinum prices have fallen by a third over the past four years.

    South Africa accounts for 80 percent of the world’s platinum supply — a mineral used in jewellery and in catalytic converters.

    The largest union at Lonmin, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which last year led the country’s longest mining work stoppage, is yet to react.

    The five-month strike by 70,000 platinum workers last year hit production in the world’s top platinum-exporting country, with companies reporting a combined loss of over two billion dollars in earnings.

     

  • Jonathan wrong on de Klerk’s divorce

    Jonathan wrong on de Klerk’s divorce

    President Goodluck Jonathan was wrong on his last Sunday’s claim that the Marike, wife of Former South African President FW de Klerk divorced him because he ended apartheid.

    He made the claim during the Thanksgiving service in his honour at the Anglican Church in Abuja.

    Jonathan said he hoped his wife, Patience will not divorce him for conceding defeat in the presidential election to General Mohammadu Buhari.

    However, according to Wikipedia Marike in 1998 after 38 years of marriage divorced Klerk following the discovery of his affair with Elita Georgiades, then the wife of Tony Georgiades, a Greek shipping tycoon who had allegedly given de Klerk and the NP financial support.

    “Soon after his divorce, de Klerk and Georgiades were married. His divorce and remarriage scandalised conservative South African opinion, especially among the Calvinist Afrikaners. In 1999, his autobiography, The Last Trek – A New Beginning, was published. De Klerk successfully had a chapter from Marike’s biography, A Place Where the Sun Shines Again, dealing with his infidelity.

    Marike’s obituary in Telegraph of Dec 6 2001 after her murder is reproduced below:

    MARIKE DE KLERK, who has been murdered aged 64, was the dignified and influential former wife of F W de Klerk, South Africa’s last white president who shrugged off deep-seated Afrikaner tenets and initiated the transition to black majority rule in 1994.

     

    For most of her life, Marike de Klerk fulfilled the role of a dedicated wife to a man of destiny, helping him through a volatile political career as enlightened Afrikaners began to question the philosophy of apartheid, and eventually standing by his side as he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela.

     

    Within a short few years, Marike de Klerk’s life was in ruins: her husband left her for another woman; then she became engaged to a younger man who turned out to be a bankrupt – he suffered a nervous breakdown days before they were due to be married and subsequently disappeared.

     

    Marike Willemse was born in Pretoria in 1937 into what was considered a privileged Afrikaner home. Her father, Wilhelm Willemse, was a distinguished academic and writer. As Professor of Social Pathology and Psychology at Pretoria University, he ensured that his children were raised in a “verligte” (enlightened) atmosphere and imbued with the spirit to respect and help others.

     

    Marike’s own academic star never shone too brightly and she was studying for a degree in Commerce at the University of Potchefstroom when she met and fell in love with a young law student, Frederik de Klerk.

     

    The student romance developed into a young marriage which she later described as “seeming to have been made in heaven”. De Klerk was the scion of a long line of Afrikaner politicians. His brother, Willem, was to become a brave, liberal newspaper editor who helped to form what is now the Democratic Party.

     

    Frederik de Klerk, while considering himself “enlightened”, did not at first share his brother’s liberal leanings. He set up a law practice while working his way through the ranks of the then all-powerful National Party (NP). Marike supported his political ambitions believing, as she later wrote, that he had the capabilities to change the apartheid structure from within.

     

    In his early days as an MP, a junior minister and then cabinet minister in the governments of John Vorster and P W Botha, F W de Klerk showed few signs of reformist zeal. If anything, he was regarded as a hardline right-winger.

     

    Marike de Klerk remained loyal and loving, although her compassion had led her into supporting social work among South Africa’s black women whose plight, culturally rather than politically, horrified her. When F W de Klerk became South Africa’s state president in 1989, he appeared to move his government swiftly to the reformist centre, a switch which many close friends attributed in some measure to the influence of his wife.

     

    In his first major speech, he startled his critics by calling for a non-racial South Africa and negotiations on the country’s future. In 1990, he lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other previously banned political organisations, and released Nelson Mandela.

     

    Marike de Klerk expressed her “pride and joy” at being married to the man who had brought an end to apartheid and opened the way for a democratic nation based on a constitution which respected all human rights. She revelled in the world acclaim the peaceful transition brought to her husband and shared the country’s adulation of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black leader

  • How Xenophobic attack began in South Africa

    How Xenophobic attack began in South Africa

    In the period before South African independence from the Apartheid regime in 1994, the all-white dominated government in that country had instigated black-on-black violence (pitting the Zulus under Chief Buthelezi against other tribes)in order to weaken the liberation efforts of the African National Congress (ANC) led by Nelson Mandela, who was in prison then.

    The combined efforts of the Organization of African Unity, now African Union (AU) and the rest of the world, to condemn and sanction that regime, eventually led to independence and a majority black regime, headed by Mandela. He was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki (who spent more than ten years on exile in Nigeria), and now, Jacob Zuma, a controversial Zulu chief, whose tribal King, Goodwill Zwelithini, ignited the current attacks on foreign Africans in South Africa.

    The King had blamed the increase in crime and unemployment on the migrant African workers who even undertake jobs which unskilled South Africans shun. The migrant workers are mostly housed in hostels in the homeland interior of South Africa, such as Kwazulu Natal, Transkei and slums of Johannesburg.

    Affected areas where violent attacks took place are Alexandra, Hill brow, Bereaand Primrose in Johannesburg, rural Kwazulu Natal and Durban. This was the case even during the apartheid regime. The lazy indigenes (mostly Zulus) who would not undertake menial jobs and unskilled jobs in mines, have always blamed their unemployment woes on migrant African workers from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, East Africa and even Nigeria. Since 2008 when these xenophobic attacks began, about 15 lives have been lost and properties worth millions of US dollars destroyed.

     

    Nigerians in South Africa

    The migration of Nigerians to South Africa in search of better jobs and improved standards of living, started shortly after that country’s independence in 1994. Nigerian experts had been seconded to that country to help in its governance. Some of them are still there in their professional capacity. A second wave of economic Nigerian migrants started moving to South Africa from 1999 when nascent democracy took root in Nigeria. Since then, we have witnessed increased migration with the usual negative effect, such as Nigerians getting involved in crime, drug pushing, sex trade and other vices. Nigerians hardly worked in the mines and other menial, labour intensive jobs. They are mostly small and medium scale entrepreneurs who run fashion shops, provision stores, restaurants, car wash bays, etc.

     

    South Africans’ View of Nigerians

    South Africans see Nigerians as proud people. They envy the entrepreneurial spirit and drive of the Nigerian. Their women folk admire the Nigerian male for this, much to the chagrin of South African males. However, this jealousy does not always result in violence against Nigerians, except amongst the criminal and drug pushing circles. It is in the homeland, less affluent slums of Kwazulu Natal and Johannesburg that violent attacks against Africans occur.

     

    Reasons behind recent attacks

    The xenophobic statement made by Zulu King Zwelithini against migrant Africans, poor governance, backwardness and ignorance of unskilled homeland South Africans, are the main reasons for current attacks on migrant Africans in South Africa. The people find it easier to blame their woes on migrants than to accuse a government run by their own Chief Jacob Zuma, a Zulu.

    On its part, the government would prefer someone else to carry the blame for the mismanaged economy and mass unemployment of South Africans. This is evidenced in how security forces virtually stood by and watched South African youths mob, burn, loot and kill foreign Africans, including Nigerians. Now that African governments and the world have condemned this shameful act, and threatened reprisals on South African interests abroad, President Jacob Zuma has promised to arrest the situation. However, well-meaning and better enlightened South Africans have staged 30,000 man anti-xenophobia marches in Johannesburg and Durban.

     

    Impact on South Africa

    The xenophobic attacks on migrant Africans have put South Africa in very bad light before the world. The impression is that the country cannot protect the lives and property of foreigners within its territory. On the other hand, South Africa’s economic interests and investments in other African countries are enormous and highly vulnerable, especially in Nigeria alone (MTN, DSTV,Shoprite, Standard Bank, etc.). Reprisal attacks against these interests (talk less of the embassy) could be very costly. It would matter very little whether the 60,000 Nigerian employees are affected or not.

     

    Brigadier General Odunwa (rtd) writes from Lagos Nigeria. He is Rector of Risk Control Academy, Ajah-Lagos. He meritoriously served in the Army for 35 years in different capacities both home and abroad; decorated with many awards.

     

     

  • Brand South Africa fights xenophobia

    The South Africa agency saddle with the responsibility of promoting South African business interest internationally, Brand South Africa, has said it is participated in a number of platforms aimed at condemning the violent crimes committed in the past few weeks and implementation of interventions to quell the violence.

    A release by the agency said it is working in line the South African constitution that emphasizes  the rule of law to see the unfortunate episode is totally eradicated. The agency said the country’s leader, President Jacob Zuma, visited various camps, where foreign nationals are temporarily sheltered, to assure them that the government and the people of South Africa would do everything to ensure their safety in the country. As such, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) had been deployed to the hotspots to reinforce the efforts of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

    Brand South Africa said a multi stakeholder session was held with the President wherein all sectors of the South African society pledged their support to play their part in ensuring that South Africa is rid of all acts of criminality. The President announced the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on immigration to provide a long-term solution to the challenges in the area of immigration in South Africa.

    The President also met with representatives of foreign nationals from our continent wherein they shared with him their perspective on these crimes and possible interventions. The African Heads of Mission in South Africa will be updated on all developments with regards to immigration related matters.

  • Anti-xenophobia protest rocks South Africa mission

    Anti-xenophobia protest rocks South Africa mission

    University of Lagos (UNILAG) students on Monday marched on the South Africa High Commission in Lagos to protest the xenophobic violence in which scores of immigrants have died in that country. WALE AJETUNMOBI reports.

    It  is not the first time xenophobic attacks will be witnessed in South Africa. When they broke out again about three weeks ago, the world was shocked. Reason: they thought the South African  authority will live up to its promise to avert a recurence.

    In the latest attacks, many foreigners have been killed or maimed. Many are in hiding or living in heavily fortified displaced people’s camps in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial nerve centre.

    The attacks have been condemned by the South African government and the United Nations (UN), yet there are reports of xenophobic incidents in far-flung cities.

    To show their displeasure over what is happening, staff and students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), on Monday, marched on the South Africa High Commission on Walter Carrington Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos, to protest against the attacks.

    The protesters, led by leaders of the Students’ Union Government (SUG), picketed the high commission’s gate. They demanded stop of the attack. They described the attacks as bestial and inhuman, urging the South African government to punish the perpetrators.

    •Security operatives attached to the High Commission addressing the protesters
    •Security operatives attached to the High Commission addressing the protesters

    The protesters, carried placards with inscriptions, such as: “Is this how South Africans will pay back people who stood by them during apartheid?”, “Do South Africans still remember the numbers of their citizens who were educated and sheltered in Nigeria?”, “Without the material, financial and emotional solidarity from African governments, could the anti-apartheid struggle be won?”, “Is South Africa suffering from acute amnesia?”, “How so soon have they forgotten the over $61 billion injected into their economy during the anti-apartheid struggle?”.

    They warned that failure to stop the attacks would lead to a boycott of South African interests in Nigeria. According to the protesters, there is need for social cohesion to guarantee development in Africa. The immigrants, they said, should not be seen as enemies in South Africa.

    They said Nigeria did not deserve to be paid back in a bad coin, having supported South Africans’ effort to rid their country of colonialism. South Africa, they said, owed its independence and everything it has achieved to the help of other Africans during the apartheid.

    The SUG president Abiodun Martins said the demonstration was to condemn the incessant xenophobic attacks on Nigerians, which he noted, violated the victims’ rights. Martins said: “No level of economic hardship and social discontent can justify the xenophobic violence against immigrants by South Africans. Nobody has monopoly of violence but we plead for calm and peace, and demand the open trial the perpetrators. Justice must be done to the victims of this senseless crime.”

    In a protest letter addressed to the South African High Commission in Nigeria, the students said they would ensure all South African products are boycotted if the “barbaric massacre” is not stopped.

    The letter reads: “We urge the South Africa government to stop the spate of senseless attacks on Nigerians and other black Africans residing in the country. The consequences of failure to prevent the spread of the xenophobic violence against our compatriots will be grim and we shall ensure that commercial activities will be halted at Shoprite, Pick ‘N’ Pay, Mr Price, Woolworths and other investments linked to South Africa. Our people will also be sensitised to boycott DStv, GOtv and MTN. These measures will be taken to make South Africans know that immigrants in their country are human beings and not animals.”

    The students urged Nigerians to join in the struggle to force South Africa to take drastic actions against xenophobia.

    A protester, Charles Igwe, said: “We must be united at this time to force the government of South Africa to bring the perpetrators of the xenophobic attacks to book. We need to bear in mind that an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us. Even if the government has been insensitive to the crime against its citizens, Nigerians must be united to fight for the rights of their brothers and sisters residing in South Africa.”

  • Fed Govt to Senate: let’s show understanding with South Africa

    THE Federal Government yesterday pleaded with Nigerians to forgive South Africa over Xenophobic attacks on foreigners in their country.

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, made the plea when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs in Abuja.

    The Senate had summoned the minister to brief it over the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

    Wali was accompanied to the session by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs II, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro as well as the Nigerian envoys in South Africa, Uche Ajulu-Okeke and Martin Cobham.

    Wali enjoined the Senate to reconsider its stand over its five-point resolution seeking severance of bilateral relationship with South Africa.

    The Senate had last week, in a resolution, urged the Federal Government to recall its two envoys in Pretoria and Johannesburg as well as drag the Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini,  before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

    The minister insisted that such drastic actions against the South Africa would adversely affect its economy and that Nigeria might attract negative publicity in the process.

    Wali explained that what happened in South Africa was not targeted at Nigerians and that the incident had negatively affected few Nigerians.

    He said: “As at now, the situation has not warranted such drastic actions like recalling our envoys in the South African country.  We are big brothers of Africa. We cannot retaliate by recalling our envoys because it will send wrong signals, which could affect their economy.

    “Even countries, whose citizens were killed and got their shops looted, have not taken such action.”

    He added that the police in South Africa seemed to be overwhelmed, hence authorities of the country drafted the military, especially to the ghetto, to maintain law and order because security reports had indicted the police as being part of the problem.

    Wali insisted that law and order had been restored in the country since  military personnel were deployed in the major towns that were mostly affected by the incident.

    He added: “On the Zulu King, the South African Human Rights Commission is already investigating his roles. Hence, we need to wait for the outcome of the investigation so that we don’t assume holier than thou status.

    “What we need to do now is to make sure that there is support from our government to make sure that Nigerians affected are well taken care of.”

    According to him, two Nigerians were wounded and hospitalised, five shops looted, two families comprising six women and eight children were also displaced.

    He explained that N84 million being damages done to Nigerians had been calculated and being processed on behalf of the victims, as compensation.

    He said: “We cannot rely on the xenophobic postings on the social media because they were not authorised by the authorities.

    “Already, certain sites were being blocked in order not to incite the citizenry against the foreigners.”

    Wali added: “Any further negative actions taken against them will adversely affect them. We should not allow this particular incident to destroy our past efforts in South Africa, which Nigerians contributed immensely to assist in getting out of the apartheid.”

    On his part, Obanikoro said King Zulu had addressed a news conference in Durban, where he invited envoys of the affected countries and refuted the allegation that he incited people against foreigners.

    He also noted that “since kings in Africa don’t admit mistakes or offer apology publicly. For Zulu to have done this, means it is his own way of offering apology.”

    “The issue of compensation is on the table. We have the list of affected Nigerians, the level of damages and how to adequately compensate the victims”

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Mathew Nwagu, said his committee would report details of their findings back to the Senate.

     

  • Xenophobia: Presidency denies recalling Nigeria’s Envoy to South Africa

    The Presidency on Monday denies recalling Nigeria’s Charge De Affairs to South Africa over the xenophobic attacks in the country.

    The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Dr. Reuben Abati, in a statement said that there was a mix up and misinformation on the matter.

    He said the Charge De Affairs was only invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for routine consultation.

    He said: “It is not true that Nigeria has recalled its envoy in South Africa on account of recent xenophobic attacks in that country.”

    “There is a mix up and misinformation on the matter. The truth is that Nigeria has not recalled his envoy from South Africa.”

    “What has been done is to invite the Charge De Affairs in that country for routine consultation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

    “Recall of envoy is a serious and sensitive matter and that has not happened.”

  • South Africa slams Nigeria for withdrawing envoys

    South Africa slams Nigeria for withdrawing envoys

    South Africa has criticised Nigeria for recalling its ambassadors from the country following the spate of xenophobic attacks, which left no fewer than seven people dead.

    A statement from Foreign Affairs Ministry said Acting High Commissioner Martin Cobham and Deputy High Commissioner Uche Ajulu-Okeke were on Saturday recalled for consultations.

    But, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Co-operation’s Spokesperson Clayson Monyela said the decision to withdraw the two was an unfortunate and regrettable step.

    “If this action is based on the incidents of attacks on foreign nationals in some parts of our country, it would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode for whatever agenda,” he said.

    Monyela, however, added that South Africa would not withdraw its high commissioner in Nigeria to reciprocate the action.

    He said the South African government was not sure why the ambassador was recalled.

    “This stage, we are not sure which action by the South African government the Nigerian government is protesting. It’s important to underscore the fact that it’s only Nigeria that has taken this step.

    A Nigerian delegation, which attended an Africa-Asia Summit in Indonesia alongside Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa last week had at no stage made their intentions known about withdrawing their ambassadors.

    “South Africa remained committed to creating a strong bond and bilateral relations with Nigeria.

    “It is for this reason that when 84 of our citizens perished on Nigerian soil, we did not blame the Nigerian government for the deaths and more than nine months delay in the repatriation of the bodies of our fallen compatriots, or for the fact that when these bodies eventually returned, they were in a state that they could not be touched or viewed as required by our burial practice,” said Monyela.

    The 84 were part of a group of 116 that were killed when a guest house of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, headed by TB Joshua, collapsed in September last year.

    Monyela said South Africa would raise its concerns through diplomatic channels with the new Nigerian administration, which will assume office next month.

    He said his country remained committed to maintaining friendly relations with Nigeria.

    Seven people were killed in a wave of anti-immigrant violence centered on areas of Durban and Johannesburg.

    South Africa has been criticised by several governments, including China, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, for failing to protect foreigners from armed mobs.

    Troops were deployed last week to hotspots in the two cities to try to quell the violence.