Mr George Ayisi-Boateng (in green shirt) during a recent interaction with officials and some Ghanaian teachers in the Republic of Seychelles.

Ghanaians are safe – Ghana’s Mission in South Africa assures

Kwame Asare Boadu Sep - 04 - 2019 , 08:24 2 minutes read

The xenophobic attacks in South Africa has not affected any Ghanaian, Ghana's mission in South Africa has confirmed.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic from his base in Pretoria yesterday, Ghana's High Commissioner to South Africa, Mr George Ayisi-Boateng, said the mission was keenly monitoring the developments and offering the needed advice and guidance to Ghanaians living there, stressing that they were safe.

"As far as the Ghana Mission is concerned, no Ghanaian has been attacked," he said.

Migrant Africans have come under a barrage of attacks from the local people, mostly the youth, accusing their fellow Africans of taking over jobs from the locals.

Shops have been looted and physical attacks visited on some people leading to the death of at least three people in the last few days.

Mr Ayisi-Boateng said the Ghana Mission would continue to monitor the situation to ensure that every Ghanaian remained safe.

He said he had advised all Ghanaians in South Africa to avoid unnecessary arguments, especially in Pretoria and Johannesburg where the violence was intense.

He said the number of Ghanaians in South Africa, who had registered with the Ghana Mission, was not more than 600.
But the High Commissioner said there was every indication that many more Ghanaians were living in the country who were not known to the mission.

"Throughout my visits to various parts of the country, I have advised Ghanaians to register with the mission so that we can know where they are and attend to them appropriately when the need arises," Mr Ayisi-Boateng stated.

South African President, Mr Cyril Rhamaphosa, has, meanwhile, condemned the violence.

In a statement posted on his Twitter handle, he said the attacks, which had been spreading around a number of the country's provinces, needed to be condemned in the strongest terms.

"I'm convening the ministers in the security cluster today to make sure that we keep a close eye on these acts of wanton violence and find ways of stopping them," Mr Rhamaphosa said.