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  • With Operation Dudula, South Africans renew assault on Nigerians, others

    With Operation Dudula, South Africans renew assault on Nigerians, others

    • Immigrants battle rising xenophobia as irate mobs barricade hospitals, schools
    • Conflict mimics apartheid era violence amid South Africa’s anti-immigrant rhetoric
    • Culprits must be arrested, prosecuted, says NIDCOM boss Dabiri-Erewa

    Tola Shoile endures Johannesburg like a mental wound. Twelve years after he relocated to the South African capital to make ends meet, the city seems poised to end him.

    “Jo’burg has taken too much from me. It cost me my business and bankrupted me. I lost everything in the xenophobic attacks of 2022,” he said, recalling how two members of his staff led an assault on his auto dealership in Cleveland, Johannesburg.

    Shoile disclosed that it took him a long while to recover from the shock of the betrayal. “I was very good to them. And I gave them bonuses even when they hadn’t earned it. Yet, they led a mob to burn down my shop. They burnt about 50 cars,” he said. “They accused me of taking their jobs but how is that possible when all I did was provide them employment? Now, they have started again,” said Shoile, bemoaning the recent wave of xenophobic attacks spearheaded by the Operation Dudula movement.

    Shoile’s fears are accentuated by the sad fate of fellow migrant, Ifeanyi Obi. Few months ago, Obi encountered terror in common hours. The 41-year-old had gone to the Jeppe Clinic with his wife and daughter for a post-natal check-up. While in the clinic, he stepped outside to “receive a package” from a client with whom he had previously fixed a meeting.

    “On my way out, I saw a crowd assembling at the hospital entrance and I suspected that it was the Dudula gang. But I had to get the cash from my client. I discharged him immediately and

    returned to get my wife,” he said.

    But as he approached the clinic, Obi saw that the crowd, previously scattered and ragtag, had coalesced into an organised mob: men and women from Operation Dudula milled around the hospital chanting “Foreigners must go!”

    As tensions intensified, the mob prevented Obi and a few others trying to access the clinic. To their chagrin, security personnel watched unperturbed as mothers with babies and other patients identified as foreigners were shoved back into the street.

    A section of the mob surged towards him and Obi scampered to safety. From a distance, he craned his neck to see if his wife, Bridgette, would emerge with their daughter pressed safely to her chest. But she didn’t.

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    “I went back later, after the mob dispersed, but I couldn’t find them. I dialled her number unsuccessfully and called our friends but none of them had seen her. I was so scared,” he said.

    Bridgette would later reach out to him from the outskirts of Johannesburg via a terse message. “I am at my cousin’s,” she said. She subsequently called him at midnight to tell him that: “A man like you stayed back to help me.” Since then, they have been estranged from each other.

    The Obis represent a fragment of a wider migrant community afflicted by South Africa’s xenophobic rage. Across Johannesburg’s inner-city tenements and the scattered townships of Gauteng, several migrant families, grapple with the consequences of xenophobia and other forms of anti-immigrant hysteria. Husbands vanish in street attacks and wives retreat to safer districts or back across the continent.

    For Rotimi Adegboye, the experience has been both “good and bad.” According to the 48-year-old, who hails from the Omowumi Abisogun Royal Family of the Iru/Ilashe kingdom in Eti-Osa area of Lagos State, since he relocated to South Africa in 2006, he has met with lots of wonderful South Africans who accepted and befriended him without discrimination.

    “On the other hand, I met with some South Africans that get intimidated because I am Nigerian. These ones attack you verbally, directly and indirectly, labelling you a drug mule or a scammer,” said Adegboye, adding that he has never suffered any grievous xenophobic attack.

    Yet, Oyindalopo Muyiwa, 46, recalled how her Zimbabwean neighbour was hacked in broad daylight, and the night a Malawian acquaintance’s cries carried through the alley as he was burned to death by people who used to be their neighbours.

    She subsequently relocated from her “toxic neighbourhood in central Joburg” to the northern part of the city, and subsequently, “a more friendly environment in Ontario, Canada.”

    South Africa, according to Muyiwa, is fast becoming a graveyard for African migrants and she didn’t wish to become a random casualty of xenophobic attacks by natives who think of immigrants as criminals and social parasites stealing their jobs and medicines.

    The hospital, internet as battlefield

    Through it all, the Operation Dudula movement has found a new stage for its campaign of erasure: the public health system. Hospitals and clinics, once sanctuaries for healing have been turned into scenes of exclusion. Recent viral videos circulating online, show men and women storming waiting halls and commanding patients to stand if they are foreign, demanding proof of their citizenship before they are allowed access to treatment.

    “If you know yourself that you are not a South African, please stand up,” one Dudula leader barked menacingly at the Roodepoort Clinic. “Don’t try us. We will check everybody.”

    The viral video of a defiant Nigerian woman being chased from a South African clinic and the euphoric approval by South Africans of the treatment meted to her further accentuates the wider climate of anti-Nigerian sentiment that has long simmered in the country’s streets and now thrives in its digital commons.

    Clutching her infant daughter in one arm and medical documents in the other, she dared her assailants to assault her even as she hurriedly left the hospital – without seeing the doctor – for her safety and that of her child.

    But rather than show compassion for mother and child, most South Africans on the comment thread attacked her.

    “Her bold attitude would have helped her in Nigeria, but no, she chose to come to SA to fight for her wrongs,” wrote @andiswatembela4942. His words setting the tone for many others who framed the woman’s presence in the hospital as an unwelcome intrusion.

    @NtombiMaseko-m7d was blunt: “Let them go,” and @PenelopeNgqumaza insisted, “Go and shout in your country.”

    The repeated use of “makwerekwere,” a slur for foreign nationals, underscores hostility. “Makwerekwere hasihambeni,” posted @LinaAkokwa. “Hambani makwerekwere,” echoed @sisterashericharmaine1602.

    For many, Operation Dudula embodies patriotic action. “Viva Dudula and March on March,” declared @thabojosepgsekhabisa9593, while @LizaMashaba celebrated: “Viva Dudula viva.” @BulelwaMatiwana-q9k added, “Thanks, viva Dudula vivac,” and @mrscashqueenb8855 endorsed the group’s stance: “They are doing a great job… even in Nigeria there is no free clinic and hospital.”

    Beyond nationality, some reduced the woman to a caricature. “They always shout. Fighting. Imagine this Nigerian oooo,” wrote @PenelopeNgqumaza. While others framed her “boldness” as arrogance. For @andiswatembela4942, her assertiveness was evidence that she didn’t belong.

    The stereotype of Nigerians as combative, disorderly, and unwilling to assimilate saturates the views while the struggle over scarce resources was a recurring theme.

    “There is a Nigerian who was talking on TikTok who said they have free hospitals in Nigeria lol, so my question is why they come to SA manje?” asked @triston9618.

    “Why would you have multiple children in a country you are not familiar with and you weren’t born in?” questioned @NomalwandleNdlovu, who acknowledged trauma for the woman’s children but still placed blame on her choices.

    The rhetoric sometimes turns chilling. “Uyazi lezizinja zama Nigeria kumele kezifundiswe isifundo,” posted @MarrySithole, adding that “These Nigerian dogs must be taught a lesson.”

    Yet amid the hostility, a few commenters pushed back. “This aggression of yours bro, is not necessary,” countered @rejoicevuragu651.

    “It’s painful though,” admitted @phumilushaba4892. “Chasing poor women and children is wrong,” said @PaulineVeremu.

    @brewedcoffee727 struggled with ambivalence: “This feels harsh and it’s pulling on my heart strings… painful to watch. But it has to be done… there needs to be order.”

    A broader reflection came from @TinasheManuel: “South Africa is isolating itself from a future that is united.”

    Some redirected their frustration toward the South African government. “Ma South Africans, let’s fast move this issue yamakwerekwere, so we can proceed to fight this Cape Independence. The country is going thanks to ANC & DA,” posted @ndukhumalo7794.

    The hostile commentaries illustrate how Nigerians are perceived as invaders by members of their South African host communities. The widespread support for the Operation Dudula shows how the sentiment is deeply entrenched in everyday discourse. While a handful of voices call for empathy, they are drowned out buy a swell of resentment.

    On social media, as on the streets, Nigerians in South Africa face a reality where their very presence and humanity are contested and too often denied.

    Offline, inside the clinical halls of Yeoville, Roodepoort, Lilian Ngoyi, and beyond, the refrain is the same: foreigners out.

    Pregnant and nursing mothers, including Nigerians, are driven out of hospital waiting halls and labour wards. Consequently, some pregnant women have gone into labour and birthed their children outside barricaded hospitals, unattended by qualified medical personnel.

    The Nigerian Union South Africa (NUSA) has catalogued these horrors: infants born on the cold bare floors, and mothers bleeding, unattended to, in waiting areas, as their weeping husbands are beaten up and chased away from hospital gates.

    NUSA President Smart Nwobi, a human rights lawyer, described the actions as “illegal and xenophobic,” warning that Nigerians are “dying daily” due to the blockades. “They are criminals operating under the guise of community activism,” Nwobi told reporters, urging President Bola Tinubu to raise the issue at the upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg. 

    More Nigerians in South Africa are pleading for urgent diplomatic intervention as the anti-migrant vigilante group escalates its campaign of intimidation, blocking foreigners from public hospitals and forcing vulnerable women to give birth on bare floors amid a fresh surge of xenophobic threats.

    Community leaders report that the group’s members have been aggressively confronting patients at facilities like the Roodepoort Clinic west of Johannesburg, demanding proof of South African citizenship before allowing entry.

    In viral videos circulating online, Dudula activists are seen marching through waiting areas, ordering non-citizens from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and other African countries to leave immediately. 

    “If you know yourself that you are not a South African, please stand up. Stand up right now. Don’t try us because we are going to check everybody,” one leader declared in a clip that has drawn widespread condemnation. 

    Operation Dudula’s gospel of expulsion

    Operation Dudula, founded in Soweto in 2021 and now a registered political party, claims its “Put South Africa First” slogan addresses crime, unemployment, and strained public services caused by undocumented migrants.

    Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini aka Nhlanhla Mohlauli, a South African activist, pilot and anti-immigrant activist, founded the movement at the age of 35.

    The group’s name, meaning “to force out” in isiZulu, reflects its goal of expelling perceived illegal immigrants, whom it accuses of fueling drug trafficking and job theft.

    The movement’s incumbent leader, Zandile Dabula, recently announced plans for a December 2025 school blockade campaign to bar non-South African children from enrollment, signaling further escalation amid claims that she actually hailed from Zimbabwe, and not South Africa.

    Speaking to the media on Monday, Dabula clarified that she is South African. She responded to critics calling for her deportation that she was born in Soweto.

    “I’m a bona fide citizen of this country. I was born and bred in Diepkloof in Soweto and not in Zimbabwe. That’s the only reason I want to put my fellow South Africans first, because I know their struggles,” adding that she is a victim of a smear campaign initiated by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

    The EFF leader, Julius Malema, had taken a swipe at Operation Dudula, calling it “a group of thugs.”

    Malema said on X: “Operation Dudula is a group of thugs and must be subjected to the political killing task team. Period!”

    Interestingly, his statement ignited backlash from his supporters, with some accusing him of prioritising foreigners over South Africans and threatening to punish him at the polls.

    On its part, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has dismissed claims that it is protecting illegal foreigners due to its stance on protecting human rights for all individuals in South Africa, regardless of their nationality or immigration status.

    The commission condemned Operation Dudula, among others, for blocking immigrants from receiving medical care in public clinics and hospitals.

    The commission slammed Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s plans to clear out informal settlements at night, citing concerns about the danger and trauma it may cause to vulnerable groups, thus raising further concerns about the commission’s ability to prioritise South Africans.

    In an interview with the SABC, SAHRC chairperson Chris Nissen said the commission has noted concerns from South Africans complaining about not receiving adequate care in public healthcare facilities due to the overburdened system allegedly caused by foreigners.

    “It concerns us [that South Africans believe we are protecting illegal foreigners]. Unfortunately, our constitution is very clear that we need to protect the rights of all people in South Africa,” he said.

    Illegal immigrants ‘should not be here drug trafficking’, said Firoz Cachalia.

    “The fact is we are not protecting illegal foreign nationals. We are protecting people in this country, and we are looking after our citizens,” he said, stressing that the commission shouldn’t be accused of protecting illegal foreigners and that the responsibility to ensure all people in the country are in the country legally lies with law enforcement and the home affairs department.

    “Our home affairs need to do their work. People are accusing the commission and saying foreigners are being served more than South Africans. People are accusing us of protecting foreign nationals. Our act says we must protect the rights of our people, but it doesn’t say we can allow any illegal activity. If there’s any illegal activity, the police must take their course, relevant government institutions must take their course and do whatever they have to do to stop illegal activity.”

    Nissen added that borders need to be protected to stop the influx of illegal foreigners.

    “We are dealing with the end of the problem. Our border management and home affairs are not doing what they are supposed to do. I’ve visited so many borders, and there’s no border fencing; people can just walk across, come in, and do whatever they want to do.”

    Yet, section 27 of the South African Constitution promises healthcare for all, without discrimination. Doctors, bound by oath, echo the same. Yet at hospital gates, Dudula enforces its own constitution: one of violence, intimidation, and exclusion.

    The Department of Health has condemned these disruptions, calling them unlawful. Police have occasionally arrested Dudula members for storming clinics, only to release them on bail. The cycle continues: mob, arrest, release, repeat. The state’s condemnation, therefore, rings hollow in the ears of those still chased from wards.

    For most Nigerians, the betrayal cuts deep. They migrated to South Africa as students, traders, and professionals. They built shops, paid rent, and contributed to the urban hum. Yet in return, they are subjected to slurs, random beatings, and are now denied medical treatment.

    Why xenophobia thrives

    South Africa’s rage has roots. Xenophobia, argued doctoral major Bastien Dratwa, has a long and bloody history in post-apartheid South Africa. Social media has enabled anti-immigrant movements to reach larger audiences, harass migrants digitally, and organise across geographic boundaries. As elections approach in South Africa, xenophobic political rhetoric has intensified through online anti-immigrant movements like Operation Dudula and Put South Africans First. Without long-term strategies against the proliferation of hate speech and a pervasive anti-immigrant discourse, violence against migrants will be a hindrance to the socio-economic transformation of South African society, notes Dratwa.

    There is no gainsaying that xenophobia in South Africa stands out for its particularly violent nature. According to Witwatersrand University’s Xenowatch, xenophobic attacks resulted in 669 deaths, 5,310 looted shops, and 127,572 displacements between 1994 and March 2024. In May 2008, attacks took place in at least 135 locations across the country. The perpetrators of such attacks did not target white people but rather migrants from other African countries and to a lesser degree from South Asian countries, whom they blamed for increased crime and the high unemployment rate in South Africa.

    Yet, amid the widespread sentiments of disillusionment and inequality, politicians fan the embers. Foreigners become scapegoats as the ruling elite, eager for easy applause, point fingers outward rather than inward.

    Some political actors have tacitly approved of or encouraged xenophobia by accusing non-nationals of being criminals or pitting them against South African locals. On August 1, 2019, for instance, Community Safety Gauteng Member of the Executive Council, Faith Mazibuko, accused foreigners who fought back during a counterfeit goods raid in Johannesburg Central Business District of being “ungovernable” and striving “to turn the country into a lawless Banana Republic.”

    Gauteng premier David Makhura also contributed to the us-versus-them narrative by tweeting, “We are cleaning up our Central Business District. We will not rest until we take our city back” as he joined police in counterfeit goods raids on August 7, 2019 that resulted in the arrests of hundreds of undocumented foreigners. 

    The statement he released the following day appeared to pit South Africans against foreigners, stating that “as South Africans we must work collectively to build our economy.”

    Then, in the same month of that year, the Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba blamed undocumented foreigners for the shortage of medication, saying that “unfortunately we cannot send them back…we have got to treat them.”

    Furthermore, on October 26, 2019, he tweeted a photograph of a breakdown of arrests of non-nationals from Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The numbers of arrests spanning from 2016-2019 in Johannesburg, were high but were mostly for driving under the influence of alcohol. He did not reveal the number of arrests of South Africans, or of European, Asian or other foreigners, recklessly misrepresenting the picture of crime in the city and placing blame on African foreigners.

    Following xenophobic riots and attacks in Diepsloot in January 2020, Home Affairs Minister Motsoaledi, said, “Most people are not documented because they came here to commit a crime. They came as criminals, not as migrants. The fact that people just remain here and kill police, it is because they don’t want to be seen, and they don’t want to be known. They don’t want their fingerprints to be captured. Don’t confuse them with migrants.”

    Such language, no doubt, leaves all non-nationals susceptible to attack. The narrative hardens as foreigners are seen by larger segments of the citizenry as criminals and parasites. These sentiments have spread through Diepsloot, Port Elizabeth, Soweto, Gauteng over the years. Migrants have been robbed and beaten; their shops looted and torched, while the police often stood by, indifferent or complicit.

    One migrant recalled reporting robbers to police only to be told: “My brother, I don’t want to die for your safety.” Another watched officers smoke his cigarettes and sip his drinks after his shop was burned.

    Consequently, many African migrants live in fear. In Limpopo, Eritrean traders were chased from their homes as their shops got looted and burned to ash. In Soweto, spaza shops worth millions were destroyed in broad daylight and in Orange Farm, foreigners were robbed seven times over while local shops stood untouched.

    Nigerians on the receiving end…

    Few Nigerians will forget in a hurry, the South African assault on immigrants, in 2019. The attack started from the suburbs of Johannesburg on Sunday, September 1, 2019.

    By Monday, September 2, South African men and women wielding clubs and stones were marching through the central business district chanting war songs. In the melee, they looted and burned more than 70 businesses owned by Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, among others, to the ground.

    In the wake of a previous attack few months earlier, precisely July 2019, the then President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmed Lawan, condemned the persistent attacks and killings of Nigerians in South Africa, warning that further attacks won’t be tolerated.

    Lawan, who hosted the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, said at least 118 Nigerians had lost their lives in xenophobic violence over the years, including 13 allegedly killed by the South African police.

    “These killings must stop,” the Senate President said even as he cautioned that the circulation of graphic images of victims on social media could spark reprisals beyond the control of government, urging the South African leadership to urgently protect Nigerians living in the country.

    Lawan recalled Nigeria’s role in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, stressing that it was unacceptable for Nigerians to continue to die violently in South Africa given their history of helping the country in its time of need.

    Nigeria repatriated more than 600 citizens from South Africa following the spate of deadly xenophobic attacks that left at least 12 people dead and scores of businesses destroyed.

    The violence, which erupted in Johannesburg and Pretoria, targeted nearly 1,000 foreign-owned businesses and drew international condemnation.

    Predictably, the attacks strained relations between Nigeria and South Africa, triggering diplomatic protests and calls across Africa for boycotts of South African interests.

    In his remarks, Moroe expressed regret over the killings and conveyed his government’s condolences to the families of the victims. He said an inquest had been launched to investigate the xenophobic attacks and identify lasting solutions.

    “Our government will continue to be committed to the good relationship with Nigeria,” Moroe said. “On behalf of the government of South Africa, we express our sincere condolences to the Nigerian government for this unfortunate incident.”

    Yet, that grisly history is about to repeat. Against the backdrop of Operation Dudula’s campaign, the anti-immigrant rhetoric escalates like wildfire, threatening to ignite classrooms as it has ignited clinics.

    From public officers to private citizens, many South Africans have lent legitimacy to the brewing xenophobic fervour. Some accuse migrants of turning Johannesburg into a “banana republic.” Others blame them for medicine shortages, crime surges, and even the instability of the state itself.

    Evidently, their words are tinder, Dudula simply strikes the match.

    Culprits must be arrested, prosecuted – Dabiri-Erewa

    In an exclusive chat with The Nation, the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, assured that all hands were on deck to resolve the crisis.

    Dabiri-Erewa declared the imperative for immediate intervention, and urged the African Union (AU) to intervene in the renewed xenophobic attacks on some Africans – including Nigeria – by South Africans seeking to prevent them from accessing medical care.

    She said that the renewed attacks of Africans in South Africa have been confirmed in one or two viral videos.

    “This is an issue that the AU has to strongly take up.  The attack is targeted at Africans not just Nigerians. Though, President Ramaphosa has spoken strongly against this, the AU has to intervene urgently,” she said.

    Meanwhile, she said that the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa has appealed to Nigerians to be calm and not take laws into their hands while “we urge South Africa government to apprehend and prosecute those found culpable and citizens openly seen carrying out these xenophobic attacks.

    Dabiri-Erewa recalled that both Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and South Africa are working on finalising the early warning signal mechanism which is aimed at protecting Nigerians in South Africa from any form of attacks.

    Ghosts of Johannesburg

    There is no gainsaying that Johannesburg wears two faces. To some, it is the city of gold, a metropolis brimming with opportunities. To others, like Muyiwa, it is a haunted tract, where every corner conceals knife-like memories.

    Until she relocated to Canada, Muyiwa dreaded something as mundane as a harmless stroll through the street. There was the possibility of being mauled to death by an irate mob, just like her Zimbabwean and Malawian friends who got butchered by neighbours laughing maniacally as they swung.

    Their individual experiences depict the collective fate of many: Obi’s estrangement from his wife, Shoile’s torched auto dealership,  Muyiwa’s PTSD, and their collective dread of suffering a fatal death.

    Together, they present a composite portrait of Nigerians living in South Africa.

    Like ill fated travelers, forced on exile within an exile, each migrant lives with the fear of being attacked. Those who are yet to embrace the trauma of living in a hostile community, startle to the surge of irate mobs shoving pregnant women and nursing mothers cradling newborns out of the hospital corridors on to the sidewalks.

    For many migrants, the realism is jarring: they either return to Nigeria and a life of struggle, or remain in South Africa to brave hatred and the possibility of a bitter death. For anyone, either choice is a wound.

  • Ohanaeze calls on South Africans stop mindless killing of Nigerians

    Ohanaeze Ndigbo Chuks Ibegbu has called on the people of South Africa to stop the mindless killing of Nigerians in their country.

    The group expressed alarm at the rate Nigerians in that land are being felled by Xenophobics and wondered why South Africans have easily forgotten the role Nigerians played in their Independence.

    The deputy publicity secretary, Chuks Ibegbu in a statement said besside, several South African citizens and companies are doing their business unmolested in Nigeria.

    Ibegbu called on South African government to do something urgently about it .

    He also called on Nigerian government to engage its South African counterpart on this very serious matter. “No single South African has lost his or her life in Nigeria.”

    He called on elders of South African to teach their youths history of their country and the role of Nigeria in their independence struggle.

    He appealed to Nigeiran government to make life worthy of living here so that our men and women would not be dying like chicken in foreign lands.

    The Ohanaeze spokesman lambasted politicians for stealing our commonwealth and our legislators for alloting huge salaries to themselves without doing any commensurate work thus arrogating to themselves monies that would be used to develop our  country and make life better for our people.

    Ibegbu called for the  abrogation of security votes to political office holders and immunity clause covering them.

    Finally Ibegbu appealed to youths of South Africa to see all Africans as their brothers while calling on Nigerians and other Africans that commit crime in the country to stop it.

     

     

  • Police rescue South Africans kidnapped in Kaduna

    Police rescue South Africans kidnapped in Kaduna

    The police yesterday rescued two South Africans kidnapped at a mining site in Maidoro Village, Kaduna State last Tuesday.

    The rescued victims have been handed over to the South African High Commission in the presence of their company’s representatives.

    A statement by the Force Public Relations Officers, CSP Jimoh Moshood, explained the rescue operation was carried out with police helicopter.

    “The operation, which lasted several hours in the forest in Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna State that led to the release of the two (2) South African nationals, was made possible through coordinated efforts led by Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State.

    “The IGP Intelligence Response Team, Police Special Forces, Police Airwing (Police Aerial Surveillance Helicopter) and Police personnel from Kaduna State Command overwhelmed the kidnappers and the two (2) victims were released,” he added.

    He said investigation was ongoing to arrest the fleeing kidnappers.

     

  • South Africans forcibly take over Nigerian’s house

    South Africans forcibly take over Nigerian’s house

    The Nigeria Union in South Africa has protested the forceful takeover of a house belonging to a Nigerian Baptist missionary by South Africans in that country.

    Chairman of the union in Johannesburg South Theodore Ezeunara, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday that persons claiming to be members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a political party, allegedly took over the house.

    He said the EFF members chased away tenants in the building and brought in new persons.

    He said efforts made by the owner of the house and the union to stop the hijacking fell on deaf ears.

    He said the union had lodged a complaint with the police on the hijacking and trespassing on a property.

    The owner of the house, who did not want his name mentioned for safety, said he bought it in 2011.

    “The house is a bungalow, comprising of four bedroom flat, two-bedroom guest house and two rooms boy quarters.

    “Last week, some people came to the house, claiming to be members of a political party, drove away the tenants, alleging that they (tenants) were foreigners.

    “It is clear that this is a case of hijacking and trespassing on a private property,” he said.

    Mr Adetola Olubajo, President of Nigeria Union, said that the case had been reported to the national secretariat of the union.

    “We will hand it over to our national legal adviser to take it up,” he said.

  • I-Drop Water makes a splash providing purified water to South Africans

    I-Drop Water makes a splash providing purified water to South Africans

    For Petunia Mohale, safe drinking water was not a given.

    After discovering rust inside the pipes at her home, Mohale was hesitant to drink the tap water.

    According to a 2015 report from the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.8 billion people around the world use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces. Mohale was one of approximately 300 million people in Africa who do not have access to safe drinking water.

    So when a sales representative for I-Drop Water approached her about installing a water purification system at her tuck shop in Soweto, Mohale agreed.

    “People don’t have a choice between this really stark alternative of either risking your health by drinking unsafe water or finding a way to pay for incredibly expensive bottled water which is environmentally devastating and just really inefficient,” said James Steere, co-founder of I-Drop Water.

    Steere and Kate Thiers Steere founded I-Drop Water as an alternative solution to make safe drinking water affordable and accessible for people like Mohale in South Africa and the African continent.

    Since its founding in 2015, I-Drop has partnered with grocery store owners in four African countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Ghana) to install over 60 filtration systems and has already sold over half a million litres of safe drinking water.

    I-Drop purification systems are installed in any grocery store with access to a running tap, at no cost to the shop owner. Customers can then purchase safe drinking water for just R1 per litre – an approximate 80% discount on bottled water. At the end of each month, I-Drop splits the profit from water sales evenly with the shop owner.

    “It’s a price point low enough for just about everyone to afford and it’s incredibly efficient,” Steere said of the I-Drop business model.

    “We’ve removed these capital cost barriers by making it [the filtration system] free for any grocery store to install in their shop and start selling.”

    In the months after installing the machine, Mohale sold around five bottles of filtered water a day, with more on the weekends. She encourages customers to buy I-Drop water, despite their initial reluctance. At first customers thought it was just tap water and not safe like bottled water, she said.

    But the I-Drop filtration system is just as effective and more cost-efficient than the bottled water industry because of three major components: the filter itself, cellular networks and environmental sustainability.

    The I-Drop system’s water filter, which is manufactured in the United States, uses a nanocarbon configuration to filter out viruses, bacteria, and cysts – anything that is carbon based and could make someone sick – while retaining the water’s minerals.

    “The filter produces no waste water. It’s a simple configuration of water that comes in contaminated comes out the other side clean and that’s essential because there’s a lot of water constraint,” Steere said.

    While the filter is efficient, effective and requires minimal oversight, Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) technology connects each machine to the I-Drop platform, allowing Thiers Steere to monitor each machine remotely.

    “I’m the data nerd. I’m the one who manages the whole platform and I’m the one that diagnoses problems. The amount you can tell from the information we get is incredible,” Thiers Steere said.

    While an I-Drop technician is available to repair the machine should it malfunction, Thiers Steere is typically able to address any technical problems remotely via the machine’s cellular-based platform and the data she receives from it.

    As a result, the personal oversight by I-Drop over each machine is limited to a filter change every 6 or 8 months. But even then, storeowners can be trained to replace the filters themselves.

    “There are hardly any places in Africa that don’t have decent [cell] coverage. And because we’ve designed our system so that it can run on solar power completely, it can run a pump on solar power, it can run electronic communication on solar,” Steere said.

    While solar power is one of I-Drop’s environmental benefits, the project also reduces plastic consumption. Consumers bring their own container or purchase a reusable container instead of buying individual water bottles.

    Ultimately, I-Drop aims to be an environmentally friendly, affordable alternative to the bottled water industry and a practical solution to deteriorating water infrastructure.

    “The massive investment needed by the government to make all the water that’s reaching people safe to drink is unrealistic,” Steere said.

    According to the South African Institute of Civil Engineering’s Infrastructure Report Card 2011, the replacement value of the water resources infrastructure was R139 billion.

    “Instead, why not treat drinking water as a food. If you can bring the price down to a point that everyone can afford it and you use existing channels [grocery stores] to get it to them, you’ve addressed that specific issue,” Steere said.

    Yet, Steere and Thiers Steere acknowledge that R1 per litre is still unaffordable for some people.

    “We want to be part of the drinking water solution. We need to tackle this challenge using business and our business model enables that,” Steere said.

    As a for-profit business venture, I-Drop hopes to subsidize the cost of installing filtration systems by sales revenue generated from local storeowners. They have already installed a machine at Bapedi Primary School in Soweto, which allows the learners and staff to drink safe water for free.

    Steere and Thiers Steere believe in the eventual scalability of I-Drop throughout Africa and elsewhere. But in the meantime, their focus is first growing the South African market around Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape.

     

    https://www.idropwater.com/

  • Xenophobia: Threatened South Africans behind attacks, says envoy

    Xenophobia: Threatened South Africans behind attacks, says envoy

    Nigerians residing in South Africa and black immigrants from other African countries have been at the receiving end of attacks by their hosts. Assistant Editor JIDE BABALOLA writes on the motive behind the South African xenophobic attacks. 

    Nigeria, South Africa set to raise anti-xenophobia monitors

    A  JOINTLY RUN “early warning” centre to track and deter xenophobic attacks against Nigerians living in South Africa is to be launched soon, the Federal Government and South Africa have hinted.
    The Foreign Affairs ministers of Nigeria (Geoffrey Onyeama) and his South African counterpart ( Maite Nkoana-Mashabane) met yesterday in Pretoria in a bid to diffuse soaring tensions over a recent string of attacks on migrants living in the rainbow nation.
    “The early warning centre would allow us keep each other abreast of issues and help prevent violence”, Nkoana-Mashabane was reported by AFP as saying.
    There were several incidents last month of South African locals attacking migrants from Africa and elsewhere and their businesses in both the administrative capital Pretoria and the commercial capital Johannesburg.
    Many locals have alleged that the targets were brothels and drug dens being run by migrants from all over Africa, including Nigeria.
    More than 20 shops were targeted in Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria, while residents in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, attacked at least 12 houses.
    The new violence-busting forum will meet every three months and will be made up of representatives from both countries and include immigration officials, business associations and civil society groups.
    Nkoana-Mashabane said it was untrue that “the attacks on foreign nationals were targeted at the Nigerians”, adding that citizens of other countries were also affected.
    Onyeama said he had received assurances that Nigerians in South Africa would be able to live in peace and called for an end to “mass attacks”.
    According to the Nigerian Union in South Africa, there are about 800,000 Nigerians in the country, many of them living in Johannesburg.
    Onyeama added that groups in Nigeria calling for the retaliatory expulsion of South African residents and businesses “do not speak on behalf of government”.
    Attacks against foreigners and foreign-run businesses have erupted regularly in recent years in South Africa, fuelled by the country’s high unemployment rate and rising poverty levels.
    In response to the violence, about 100 demonstrators gathered on February 23 outside the offices of two South African companies in Abuja – telecoms giant MTN and satellite TV provider DSTV – to protest the upsurge in attacks.
    Last month, the Federal Government urged the African Union (AU) to step in to stop “xenophobic attacks” on its citizens in South Africa, claiming that 20 Nigerians were killed last year.
    South African authorities have declined to confirm the figure which may have been the result of other criminal activity, not just anti-immigrant violence.
    A protest march against “migrant crime” was held in Pretoria on February 24 and resulted in violent clashes between crowds of young South African men and migrants from other African countries, including Nigerians and Somalis.
    President Jacob Zuma responded by condemning the wave of xenophobic unrest and called for calm and restraint. He said that migrants should not be used as a scapegoat for the country’s widespread crime problem.

    REPEATED attacks on Nigerians living and earning their meal tickets in South Africa by their hosts have put a question mark on the fortune the Federal Government invested for the liberation of South Africa in the apartheid era.
    The emancipation of African ‘brothers and sisters’ had been the centre piece of Nigeria’s foreign policy since independent in 1960. The Federal Government spent billions of dollars in Liberia, Sierra-Leone, several years after its prominent role at ending the oppressive apartheid regime in South Africa.
    Besides investing huge resources in the anti-apartheid struggle, Nigeria hosted at least two post-apartheid era South African Presidents – the late Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Several South African companies from South Africa have adopted Nigeria as their operational headquarters.
    But rather than show gratitude to the roles played in their country, gangs of black South Africans have always been eager to transfer aggression against Nigerian immigrants in the xenophobic rage documented across the world.
    The latest of such attacks was on February 24. The number of the casualties has not been determined. Some were killed, many maimed and others violently dispossessed of all they labored to acquire over the years. Their homes, businesses, cars and other properties were aggressively vandalised in what many described as transferred aggression by irate South Africans.
    According to reports, the police in some places looked the other way with some measure of indifference. The police in Pretoria reportedly expended stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the attacking arsonists.
    The word ‘xenophobia’ has its root from a combination of the Greek words – xenos, meaning “strange” or “foreigner”, and phobos, meaning “fear”. Xenophobia can manifest itself in many ways involving the relations and perceptions of an in-group towards an out-group, including the fear of losing identity, suspicion of its activities, aggression and desire to eliminate its presence to secure a presumed purity.
    Over the years in South Africa, xenophobia has attained the worst violent. Nigerians, Somalis and other African communities bear witness to this. However, such violent South African xenophobic reactions do not find expression against South African whites or any other group of white people – this offers further insight into the psychological condition of the rampaging hordes.

    Climate of fear

    On the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Nigerian-born Emeka Uhanna’s profile is one of those used to illustrate the climate of fear and other implications of xenophobia in South Africa. With all his life savings invested in a restaurant/liquor business, 47-year-old Uhanna and his South African wife earn honest living in Randburg, South Africa.
    Though the couple has no criminal record or affiliation since 1997 when they moved to Randburg, the Uhannas now live in fear of the prevailing xenophobia. They have also expressed concern for their two children, aged 16 and 14.
    Uhanna said: “My wife is worried about what future our children will have if the xenophobic attacks become the norm. We don’t know how to explain the hatred against Nigerians to our families, to our children. This is the third round of attacks against foreigners; one was in 2008 where people were killed, again in 2015.
    “I now get calls from home; my family members wanting to know if we’re safe; they see the stories in the news. I do feel safe, I feel safe because I live in the suburbs away from where the unrest and violence has been happening, but I don’t know if I could say that if I was living in a poorer area.
    “There are parts of this city that are no-man’s land; where the police have no control over what happens and where there are no consequences for wrong-doing. That unfortunately is where the xenophobia has thrived.
    “There is just lawlessness from all sides; by all nationalities and that sort of environment is a time-bomb. Life is different in the suburbs but I do worry about my fellow Africans who become victims of these incidents. They have nothing to do with crime.
    “I love this country, I consider it my home and it breaks my heart to see what is happening. The government needs to seriously address the concerns people are raising – both South Africans and foreigners,” Uhanna said.

    Hateful stereotypes

    In the 1960s, Nelson Mandela lived in Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki spent was in Nigeria in the 1970s. Many South African citizens passed through federal tertiary institutions not only in the country but on Federal Government scholarships.  In those days, South Africans, who actively participated in the struggle against apartheid, saw in Nigeria a bastion of hope.
    But overtime, a growing population of mostly unemployed and largely envious bands of black South Africans, see Nigerians and other hardworking immigrants as people who rob them of ‘opportunities’.
    In his book, “Struggle with no borders: Capitalism, nationalism and xenophobia in South Africa”, Dale T. McKinley, alleges that “African state has constructed and fed the idea and practice of xenophobia. At its conceptual heart, xenophobia is a fear of the ‘other’, with the ‘other’ most often being defined by differential (contemporary) nation-state ‘membership’.
    To some extent, leaders at different levels of the African society incite aggression, hate and xenophobia and sometimes, they inspire violence and bloody conflicts.
    According to Antonio Tabucchi, “Xenophobia manifests itself, especially against civilisations and cultures that are weak because they lack economic resources, means of subsistence or land. So, nomadic people are the first targets of this kind of aggression.” This comes close to the observation of Robin May Schott in “Feminist Interpretations of Immanuel Kant” where she stated that “Xenophobia is a fear of individuals who look or behave differently than those one is accustomed to.”
    Basically, simple but hateful perpetuation of stereotypes helps to drive aggression. In social psychology, a stereotype is a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality.
    Wikipedia explains further: “Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination are understood as related but different concepts. Stereotypes are regarded as the most cognitive component and often occur without conscious awareness, whereas prejudice is the affective component of stereotyping and discrimination is one of the behavioral components of prejudicial reactions.
    “In this tripartite view of intergroup attitudes, stereotypes reflect expectations and beliefs about the characteristics of members of groups perceived as different from one’s own, prejudice represents the emotional response, and discrimination refers to actions.”

    Transferred aggression

    Ben Ephson, the Managing Editor of Daily Dispatch newspaper in Ghana thinks that xenophobic attacks occur because Black South Africans are “lazy” and “jealous” of the wealth that foreigners make in their country, thereby making such foreigners in places like Johannesburg and Pretoria to lock themselves up in their homes – unable to go about their normal business activities.
    “Essentially, when people are poor, they feel frustrated and they want to vent their anger on innocent people,” he stated as he explained reasons he thinks they are frustrated as a result of their poverty caused by their own lazy attitude towards work.
    “You live in a community with people who have come there looking for opportunities. They work maybe 18 or 20 hours a day and you see them buying things and shipping it home or the guy has gone to buy a motorbike or has gotten a second-hand vehicle he or she is using and you begin to think: ‘I live here (but) I don’t have these things, why should they have it?’ forgetting that you are being lazy.
    “Maybe you are not prepared to take 200 Rand an hour. You are asking for 400 Rand an hour and he (the foreigner) coming there knowing what he or she wants to do is taking 200 Rand. So, they (South Africans) decide to go on a looting spree. Something needs to spark them to do this and it’s more of poverty, need and jealousy, he added.”
    A Nigerian immigrant asserted that he and his fellow Nigerians have been working hard in South African.
    The Nigerian who pleaded for anonymity said: “People here are saying that Nigerians are bringing in drugs and promoting prostitution. But can I tell you something, while I don’t condone crime, Nigerians are not the only ones involved in crime here.
    “It’s all too easy to profile one group and that is not right. It’s also dangerous and puts people’s lives in danger; it’s important for South Africans to know that not all of us are criminals, the same way not all South Africans are engaged in crime.”
    In an online publication quoting a study by The Economist, www.thesouthafrican.com states that as a matter of fact, many South Africans are lazy. It referred to a data compiled by The Economist, using information from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Journal of Public Health. Painting South Africans as being among the laziest in the world, the data states that nearly 50 per cent of South African adults have “sedentary” lifestyles while the global average is 23 per cent. South Africa was also ranked as the fifth most inactive country in the world, behind Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Malaysia.”
    Despite efforts by the government, many South Africans lack access to housing, water, land and other essentials of life but President Zuma who rejects any suggestion of South Africans being xenophobic has had cause to describe his people as lazy lots.
    In a March 25, 2015 report, South Africa’s The Citizen newspaper, in a report titled: “Zuma slams lazy South Africans” quoted President Zuma as saying that his people are lazy and that dictatorial fiat may be needed to effect a change of attitude.
    “Our people are waiting for the government. Our people are not used to standing up and doing things. These ones (foreigners) are not expecting any government to do anything, so they get here, see opportunities and exploit them”, the paper stated.
    The South African High Commissioner to Nigeria Lulu Mnguni traced the attacks by South Africans on their guests to the belief that their means of livelihood was under threat.
    President Jacob Zuma has condemned the attacks and warned that he would not condone the situation. Mnguni also assured that his country does not hate but feels threatened somewhat.
    The envoy said: “The root cause can be viewed more as social challenges that exist when some people find out that their businesses are being threatened. When we were growing up, we had businesses that were run by our own people but now they feel that outsiders have taken over.”

    In search of truce

    Apparently tired of living in fear, Nigerians in South Africa urged the Federal Government to diplomatically address their challenges.
    The row that ensued between the Senate and the House of Representatives over which of the chambers should raise a fact-finding team to South Africa was laid to rest with the withdrawal of the Red Chamber.  Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu announced the Senate concession.
    According to the list announced on the floor of the House by Deputy Speaker Lasun Yusuff, the delegation to South Africa would be led by House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila. In the team are: Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nnena Okeje (PDP, Abia); Sadiq Ibrahim (APC, Adamawa); Henry Nwawuba (PDP, Imo); Nasiru Daura (APC, Katsina) and Shehu Musa (APC, Bauchi.
    The House resolved that its delegation and officials of the Foreign Affairs Ministry should engage the parliament of South Africa and Nigerians in South Africa on the xenophobic attacks with a few to stopping such attacks and preventing any future occurrence.
    Not a few Nigerians condemned the attacks on Nigerians by their South African hosts.
    Lagos-based lawyer Femi Falana wrote to President Jacob Zuma, threatening to take a legal action against South Africa at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians continue.
    In his letter, the rights’ crusade and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) urged the South African authorities to identify perpetrators of the attacks, prosecute them and ensure compensation for victims of the attacks.
    Falana noted that since 2008, xenophobic violence and other criminal acts had continued across South Africa, claiming lives, leaving countless victims injured and robbing them of their property.
    The letter reads: “We are writing to request you to use your leadership position to urgently identify suspected perpetrators of criminal acts and xenophobic attacks against Nigerians and other Africans living in South Africa and to bring them to justice promptly.
    “We also urge you to promote and ensure access to justice and the right to effective remedy and reparations to victims. We believe that it is the failure of your government to bring perpetrators to justice and protect the victims of the xenophobic attacks that has resulted in a vicious cycle of attacks and impunity.
    “These xenophobic attacks and violence are not only human rights violations but also criminal acts, and the persistent failure to proactively address the problems is a serious affront to the rule of law, and directly breaches your government’s international human rights obligations including under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, particularly Article 12 on the right to movement.”
    Many believe the masterminds of the February 24 attacks would be fished out and sanctioned to serve as a deterrent and to forestall such attacks.

  • South Africans ‘attack’ Nigerian businesses, says Union

    Businesses operated by Nigerians came under fresh attacks by South Africans yesterday in Pretoria West, according to the Nigerian community in that country.
    Ikechukwu Anyene, president, Nigeria Union, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by telephone from Pretoria that the attacks began at 4.00 a.m.
    He said the union had reported the development to the Nigerian mission and South African police.
    “As we speak, five buildings with Nigerian businesses, including a church have been looted and burned by South Africans.
    “One of the buildings is a mechanic garage with 28 cars under repairs, with other vital documents, were burned during the attack.
    “Also, the pastor of the church was wounded and is in the hospital receiving treatment,” he said.
    Mr. Anyene said the union had informed Nigerians in South Africa to be vigilant in the face of renewed xenophobic attacks.
    According to him, the union received information that there will be xenophobic attacks against foreigners on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23.
    “We began taking precautionary measures when the incident took place today.
    “The attack in Pretoria West is purely xenophobic and criminal attack because they loot the shops and homes before burning them,” he said.
    Mr. Anyene asked the federal government to persuade its South African counterpart to protect Nigerians in their country.
    “These attacks should not be allowed to continue because it is a big setback,” he said.

  • Use of Pidgin English on stage has limited our comedians – Basketmouth

    Use of Pidgin English on stage has limited our comedians – Basketmouth

    A comedian, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth, on Friday said that adoption of Pidgin English on stage by Nigerian comedians had limited their reach and popularity.

    Basketmouth told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that many comedians would have gotten international fame and recognition if they were entertaining in English.

    He said that Nigerian comedians also needed to step up their game in order to be globally competitive.

    “One of the problems we have right now in the industry and which makes it difficult to break out of our cultural background and society is the language barrier.

    “Ninety per cent of our Nigerian comedians entertain their audience in Pidgin English and which limits their reach.

    “You can only break even in Liberia, Ghana and Sierra-Leone, all English speaking West African countries, but can’t go beyond that in Francophone countries.

    “So, if you continue being lazy as a comedian and not striving to be universal with your materials, you are going nowhere.

    “Joke is a joke, as long as you don’t make it too cultural because nobody in America, with the right audience, knows about the Warri people or the Yoruba people or Hausa.

    “So create your jokes and even more universal which is the major problem we have right now.

    “This is the reason why South Africans can break into the Western world because of the fact that they deliver their jokes in English and their structure is better than ours.

    “In Nigeria, the entertainment is massive, but with no structure,” he said.

  • When South Africans visited Lagos tourist resorts

    When South Africans visited Lagos tourist resorts

    LAGOS has cut the image of the unfriendly human jungle where only the fittest survive. It is believed that the mega city takes no prisoners and has no sympathy for the weak.

    This might not totally be false as the city suffers no fools. But beside the quest for money and survival, Lagos is also a city that has a soul that could be discovered for those who embark on the search.

    It is rather funny that in most cases, those who discover this other side of Lagos are the tourists and visitors. Lagosians, as  residents of the city are called, are too busy  with the question of survival to look for the soul of the city.

    Last week, trade delegates from the South African Tourism (SAT), including travel agents and tour operators, were in Lagos to meet with their Nigerian counterparts.   The South Africans  were joined by their Nigerian counterparts under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA) and  National Association of Nigerian Tour Operators (NATOP).

    First was the discussion segment at the Federal Palace Hotel and Casino, Victoria Island, Lagos. Leading the team from the SAT was the  Evelyn Mahlaba, the SAT’s  Regional Director of Africa.

    She said the presence of the SAT trade delegates was aimed at improving their market.

    She said:“We embarked on research on what travellers want in a particular destination. Lagos and Abuja were in the focus. This resulted in coming out with a new strategy which we are advertising to consumers.”

    She said the SAT tourism had also leveraged on some high profile music events to sell the destination and use top artistes push forward their advert campaigns.

    From left: Ambassador Monaisa; Thobi Duma, South African Airways Country Manager, Nigeria; and Onung.
    From left: Ambassador Monaisa; Thobi Duma, South African Airways Country Manager, Nigeria; and Onung.

    In his speech on the occasion, the Consul General of South General of South Africa in Nigeria, Ambassador Mokgethi Monaisa, said tourism was making a huge   contribution to Nigerian and South African economies.

    He described tourism as the sector of the economy with the greatest competitive  advantage and that if the two countries continued to work together and do the right thing, tourism could do more to reduce poverty.

    Monaisa talked about tourism in South Africa: “In total, tourism in South Africa contributed no less than 9.4 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product in 2014, and, more importantly, one in every ten jobs is supported by tourism.

    “However, tourism growth should not only be measured by the numbers of domestic tourists or international arrivals. Tourism growth has to be environmentally and socially sustainable. And it has to be inclusive growth. To achieve this, we must bring more marginalized community into tourism mainstream.“

    He said” knowing full well that Nigerians travel a lot, the SAT needs to know their needs and feed their passion”.

    Monaisa said the South African and the Nigerian governments needed to put heads together to see how to streamline visa regimes to make travelling between the two countries easier. This, he said, could be done by introducing e-visas technologies that could take finger prints and live video interviews for applicants.

    He said between January 2013 and June this year, South Africa issued 133,114 visas to Nigerians.

    The NANTA president, Alhaji Aminu Agoha,  while welcoming the visitors, advised the South African authorities to work hard to ensure that the 2014 xenophobic attack in South Africa “never occurs again”.

    The NATOP President, Mr. Nkereuwem Onung, welcomed the trade workshop and called for greater collaboratrion between the two countries .

    After the workshop, the South Africa delegates had the opportunity of seeing Lagos, courtesy of the NATOP. From Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, they had a tour of Mainland through the Third Mainland Bridge, Alausa, Ikeja, Avenue and Opebi Street, through Maryland, Ikorodu Road, Dolphin Estate, the Lagos suspended bridge linking  Ikoyi and Lekki Phase 1 and ended up at the Nike Art Gallery.

    The South Africans had a wonderful time at the Nike Arts Gallery which has the rich and eclectic art works and cultural display.

    Chief Nike Ekundaye was personally present to teach the visitors some Yoruba words and dance steps. They also saw the future of Lagos at the office of Eko Atlantic City.

    The tour ended at Terra Culture for a lunch.

    Speaking on the tour,  Onung had this to say: “We have been privileged to engage them over time and then we have had a few  trips out of Lagos to South Africa.

    “We have a lot to learn from South Africa Tourism and that doesn’t mean that we don’t have tourism here. But I think it is about priority of government and we also need to make our government to realise that there is also much in tourism that we can look forward to.

    ”Yes, we talk about oil and oil is exhaustible, but tourism is something that will last and South Africa is doing that much. They have discovered that Nigeria is their biggest market in Africa, and that is why despite their challenges as a country, they still attempt  strategically to market by diminishing whatever is their weak areas and market their areas of strength.

    “It is on that note that we also think that as Nigerians we should let them understand that we may not be as organised and focused as they are, but we also have a lot to show them and most of them have been coming to Nigeria. And that is why we have to take them on a city tour today.

    “We have to take them to the Mainland. Most of them stay in Victoria Island and just go back. I am sure that they may have been amazed today by the tour of Lagos that we have given them. That is to show that we have a lot and that all we need to do is just get organized as a country and begin to prioritize tourism and we can make a whole lot out of it.

    “That is our approach to it and our country needs to begin to look at another source of revenue. That is why we need to tell the government of the day that it is time to also appoint people who are stakeholders who understand what tourism is all about when they want to appoint people into the tourism ministry.

    “Most of them have never left the Island in their years of coming to Lagos and they are very excited, and it is something that is to be cherished and we are looking at doing more with them in terms of collaboration.”

    To the South Africans, they said, the tour shattered a lot of the preconceived myths about Lagos and left with an impression of a city that beneath all the noise of its toughness, still has a soul.

    For many Lagosians, they may not know Lagos has the second longest bridge in Africa, that is, the Third Mainland Bridge, 11.8 kilometres.

    They may not equally know that Nike Arts Gallery has one of the biggest collections of ancient and modern Nigerian contemporary art works; they also do not know that in Terra Kulture, one could have authentic Nigerian cuisines in a cerebral urbane ambience.  The Makoko water village is one of its kind in the world.

    These are things that many residents of Lagos hardly venture to find about. These and many more form the soul of Lagos.

  • South Africans boo AKA for losing BET Awards

    South Africans boo AKA for losing BET Awards

    Many African prominent acts have been expressing their grievances on social media as regards the BET Awards, but the issue seems different for South-African rapper, AKA who lost the award to Stonebwoy. He made known his disappointment at South Africans for depreciating his craft.

    He tweeted: “I think it is time I retire that South African flag from my shows for a while. It doesn’t make sense to me anymore. Everything I’ve done abroad is in the name of South Africans, yet South Africans are the ones who give me the most grief.”

    The Nation learnt that he flared up responding to a South African who tweeted at him saying: “@akaworldwide you run your mouth about how great you are and diss those lower than you then can’t face the laughs when you don’t win an award.”

    The tweet which generated controversies among the South Africans seems to have run out of control as AKA later tweeted, saying he was leaving South Africa for Dubai.