Ramaphosa attributes attacks on Nigerians in South Africa to criminality and unemployment

SOUTH African president Cyril Ramaphosa has distanced the country's populace from the ongoing attacks against foreigners saying that they are just the actions of criminal elements reeling from the effects of high unemployment.

 

Over the last two years, about 120 Nigerians have been killed in xenophobic attacks across South Africa according to the Nigeria Union in South Africa (Nusa). Despite the efforts of the Nigerian government to get Pretoria to reign in the angry mobs, the attacks against fellow Africans have continued.

 

Speaking while visiting Abuja yesterday, President Ramaphosa declared that the killing of Nigerians and other foreign nationals in the country was an act of criminality and was not specifically targeted at Nigerians. He added that they are caused by high levels of unemployment among the youth as well as other social factors emanating from apartheid rule, adding that his government is doing all it can to address the matter.

 

President Ramaphosa said: “These are acts of criminality. When we were involved in our struggle we said the South Africa that we are fighting for is one which will regard everyone who lives there on the basis of equality, respect for human rights.

 

“We said that South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it, so the Nigerians who are in South Africa are also part of our community. They can never be targeted on an intentional basis as people who must either be attacked or killed, so whenever that happens I would like us to see that as acts of criminality which in the main affects many South Africans in various parts of our country."

 

He added that his government is determined to bring down the levels of criminality and also go after those who perpetrate these acts. According to the president, anyone who attacks any person in South Africa will be pursued with the full might of the law to make sure that they are brought to justice and to book.

 

“I want to say it here right now that South Africans do not have any form of negative disposition or hatred toward Nigerians and the main, Nigerians and South Africans in a number of places of our country live side by side. They cooperate very well and some are in the corporate structures of our various countries and some are traders and some do a whole number of things.

 

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

 

President Ramaphosa noted that South Africa had brought down the level of crime in the country and is currently working on a concerted basis to ensure that it is reduced. He added that the problem is largely down to the inequality in South Africa whereby a few people are extremely very rich and the majority of the people are very poor.

 

“The criminality that we have is borne out of a number of factors. One of those is unemployment amongst a number of our people as 27% of South Africans are unemployed which amounts to about 9m and most of these are young people. Poverty is still all pervasive in South Africa and all this emanates from our very said history of apartheid misrule," President Ramaphosa added.

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