“I think that it could have been more vigorous than what we have seen so far,” he began when Weekend Sun asked if he was satisfied with the administration’s response so far.
“There are lots of Ghanaians out there,” he continued, positing that, “and I think that most of them should have been immediately offered the opportunity to come home if they have any sense of fear.”
The largest opposition party leader was speaking on Wednesday on wide ranging matters in a riveting interview with Weekend Sun, the rest of which you would not want to miss in our subsequent editions.
South Africa has come under scrutiny in recent times as television images have shown armed mobs looting immigrant-owned shops and attacking people. In one famous case, images have appeared of men beating and stabbing Mozambican Emmanuel Sithole to death in broad daylight.
A Ghanaian, who died during the period of the attacks, was initially feared to have been a victim but the notion was discounted by Ms. Lulama Xingwana, South Africa’s High Commissioner to Ghana during a press conference in Accra on Tuesday.
During the press parley, the High Commissioner told journalists that the death of the Ghanaian man was from natural causes. In spite of that, she explicitly damned the xenophobic attacks.
But Nana Addo, during the encounter with Weekend Sun, emphasised Ghana’s response to the situation, declaring that, “I am saying that it should have been a much more vigorous reaction.”
(Now), “We are hoping that the South African Government, at the end of the day, will bring it under control and life will become normal in South Africa. We all have to hope that because what is going on in South Africa at the moment is not at all to the credit of South Africans or the African peoples.”
Proceeding, he said if he were President Mahama, he would be telling South African President Jacob Zuma “To get a grip on the situation” by putting in place, in the short term, measures that are needed to, immediately, deal with the circumstances that provoked the attacks.
In sum, Nana Addo said he would “encourage (President Zuma) to act firmly.”
His final take on this globally condemned development is that “He (President Zuma) would be unpopular in certain circles of South Africa whatever measures he takes; but it is in the interest of South African people themselves [to recognise] that this image that they are casting of a people who are against their own fellow Africans is not a good image for them at all.”
Meanwhile, Ms Hanna Tetteh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has, in an undated statement published on the website of Ghana’s High Commission to South Africa, (http://www.ghanahighcommission.co.za/), served notice that government will implement an evacuation plan if so advised by the mission in South Africa.
The statement, which was first seen by Weekend Sun on Wednesday evening, began: “We have been informed by our Mission in South Africa that the meeting scheduled to take place this morning with the South African Minister for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister for State Security and other Senior Government officials has ended. Prior to the meeting with the South African Senior Government officials, the African Ambassadors had met to come to a common position on the issues to be raised with the Representatives of the South African Government.”
Ms. Tetteh highlighted that at the said meeting, the South African Ministers “expressed their sadness and regret for the attacks” and “condemned the actions as criminal acts that would not be tolerated.”
They were said to have drawn attention to some remedial measures that were being taken to curtail the situation, including that President Zuma “had set up an Inter-Agency Task Force to deal with the security situation and to make sure that law, order and calm was restored,” Minister Tetteh wrote.
The statement also said: “Secondly, they had also set up protected shelters for internally displaced persons and thirdly, they had also set up a committee to assist in their re-integration into the communities where they previously resided.”
That notwithstanding, “We are informed that the Ambassadors, on their part, expressed their condemnation of the incidents that had taken place, and briefed the South African Officials on the reaction in their respective countries including the calls for demonstrations and boycott of South African goods and services, among others,” the Foreign Minister’s statement read.
“Specifically, in respect of Ghanaian citizens, our mission in South Africa has informed us that they have been in touch with the leadership of the Ghanaian associations in South Africa in all the ten provinces of the country and no other incidences of death or injury of Ghanaians have been reported as at the time of writing this statement.
“Further, our mission in South Africa has advised all Ghanaians to restrict their movements and until law and order and calm had been restored, further to the South African Government’s assurances.
Addressing the issue that Nana Addo had raised, Ms. Tetteh wrote that “Government is closely and actively monitoring the situation. We shall implement the evacuation plan if it is advised by our mission in South Africa as the most appropriate course of action.”
This story was originally published by The Weekend Sun.
No comments:
Post a Comment