Xenophobia In South Africa
Reprisal Attacks Loom!
…Accra, Kumasi Malls, ShopRite, MTN, Broll, Game On The Radar
Barring any swift intervention by the security agencies, there is likely to be coordinated reprisal attacks on all Shoprite and Game shops, MTN and Broll, – all South African companies-in Accra and Kumasi at 3pm today.
The New Crusading GUIDE has already alerted some top security chiefs about intelligence we are gathering from families with relatives in South Africa where xenophobic attacks are taking place, about the reprisal attacks.
“It high time we made the South African know that they are not the only people with balls. What is so appalling is their definition of who a foreigner is. They are attacking people from their neighbouring African countries and have left the whites who ruled them. We will show them that we can be more violent than they are doing,” said Akwasi Afrane, who claimed his brother’s car had been burnt in South Africa and as a payback would lead a group he had form for the reprisal attacks today.
Asked how the group started here in Ghana, Akwasi Afrane said they started the membership drive last year after the attacks knowing very well it would continue this year, and that “We mobilized this year because we are tired of the many deaths, is not a crime for a Ghanaian to be working in SA. If they are killing us we would not sit down. We would show them something. I encourage other unregistered members to join us in the fight this evil tooth for tooth. We would see which police officer would show up to defend those stores today.”
From Tip-Toe Lane to Tudu in Accra through to Krofrom Columbia, Ash Town and ghettoes in Asawasi, and many other flash points in the country, junkies and harden criminals are being recruited to carry out the attacks on these shops to serve notice to the South African that they do not have monopoly over violence in the sub-region.
Already,
some
angry Nigerians yesterday burnt down an MTN office in Lagos to stop South
Africans from bullying and murdering Nigerians in broad daylight in South
Africa.
A Twitter user @milksha64693019 posted the photos on Twitter and wrote:
“Angry Nigerians burn down MTN office in Apapa…..happening right now!!!
#SayNoToXenophobia”.
Her Twitter account has been suspended for posting
the photos.
The comment comes after protesters in Turffontein, Johannesburg, looted shops
as they demonstrated in the area on Monday morning.
They targeted shops they believed to be owned by foreign nationals and as a
result burnt tyres, human beings in the streets and also forced passengers out
of at least one taxi.
Meanwhile, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for the arrest of those involved in a spate of attacks targeting foreign-owned businesses in the country.
Ramaphosa said in a statement that he had convened a security meeting with law enforcement agencies to stop the violence.
He said there was no justification for the attacks and warned that violence on foreign businesses could trigger xenophobic attacks against South Africans living abroad.
“The attacks on people who run businesses from foreign nationals is totally unacceptable,” Ramaphosa said.
“There can be no justification whatsoever about what people are having a grievance over that they should go out and attack people from other countries because when they do so here, they should also know that fellow South Africans will be attacked in other countries,” the President said.
Looters run off an alleged foreign-owned shop in Turffontein in Johannesburg on Monday.
Several shops and businesses were looted and burned down in a riots that broke out in a neighborhood in Johannesburg on Sunday, according to the South African police. Many foreign owned businesses were targeted in the violence.
Police said 70 people have been arrested in connection with the incident which began in Jeppestown, a neighborhood in the city, but has quickly spread to other areas.
The Nigerian government summoned its ambassador Bobby Moroe on Wednesday saying some of its citizens were targeted in the attacks.
President Muhammadu Buhari said he was deeply concerned about the situation, and he has also sent a delegation to meet with Ramaphosa over the attacks.
Zambia’s transport ministry has also warned truck drivers against traveling to South Africa until security issues have been resolved, according to a local media report.
