Ghana has formally raised alarm with South Africa after its citizens were targeted in a fresh wave of anti-foreigner confrontations, prompting the summoning of Pretoria’s top envoy in Accra over what officials described as intimidation and harassment.
The protest by Ghana’s foreign affairs ministry follows the circulation of disturbing video clips showing vigilante groups in South Africa stopping and questioning people they suspect to be in the country illegally.
In one widely shared clip, a Ghanaian man is challenged over his documents, which he presents, but the group dismisses them and tells him to go and “fix your country.”
Accra said the man is legally in South Africa and condemned the treatment he received, warning that such actions threaten the safety and dignity of law-abiding migrants. Officials also confirmed they had engaged South Africa’s acting high commissioner to Ghana, Thando Dalamba, lodging a formal complaint over what they termed “xenophobic incidents” affecting not only Ghanaians but other African nationals.
“Such conduct undermines the dignity and rights of law-abiding citizens,” the ministry said in a statement released on Thursday.
Ghanaian authorities have since reached out to the man captured in the video and offered support. The country’s top envoy in South Africa, Benjamin Quashie, also met him, urging calm among citizens living abroad.
“The situation is dire, we understand, [but] let's continue being law-abiding [and] respect the rules... of engagement as migrant citizens in this country,” Quashie says.
The incident has drawn wider concern across the region. Nigeria has advised its nationals in South Africa to remain cautious following reports of renewed protests targeting foreigners. In a statement on Friday, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission said demonstrations in several cities, including Cape Town, Durban and East London, now known as KuGompo City, had turned violent, with looting, property damage and injuries reported.
The growing tension has also triggered high-level diplomatic contact. Ghana’s foreign affairs minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa held talks with his South African counterpart Ronald Lamola, who promised a full investigation and expressed sympathy for those affected.
On his part, South Africa’s acting police minister Firoz Cachalia condemned the actions seen in the videos, stressing that “no individual or group has the authority to take the law into their own hands, irrespective of grievances or frustrations”.
Xenophobia has remained a persistent challenge in South Africa, at times erupting into deadly violence. The country hosts about 2.4 million migrants, making up just under four percent of its population, though unofficial figures are believed to be higher.
Most migrants come from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, with smaller numbers from nations like Nigeria. Many have historically moved to South Africa in search of work.
However, vigilante groups including Operation Dudula and March on March argue that the country is overwhelmed by migrants, blaming them for unemployment, crime and drug abuse. These groups have staged protests in major cities, some of which have escalated into violence and attacks on businesses owned by foreigners.
Earlier this week, March on March led a demonstration in Durban. In one of the clips shared online, a group of participants is seen viciously attacking a man they believed to be an undocumented foreigner, adding to fears of a renewed wave of anti-migrant hostility.