Acting Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa, Temitope Ajayi, has dispelled the speculation that Nigerians are under intense attack in the Southern African country, following recent reports of violence against foreigners.
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Ajayi said that the recent incidents recorded were isolated confrontations with foreigners, rather than targeted violence against Nigerians.
“Let me first, to the point, say that right now, Nigerians are not under siege in South Africa. The situation is currently under control. The two governments are working on it. Actually, the priority right now is to ensure the safety and well-being of every citizen, including foreigners.
“What we have seen is a kind of isolated tension.
And that is why it calls for caution, but in terms of a direct attack or a direct siege on Nigerians, that is not taking place right now,” he said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday.
The acting ambassador explained that although there had been some concerns about people targeting foreigners, the South African government had come out to issue a statement cautioning the people against targeting foreigners and xenophobic practices.
“So for now, I’m particularly in Pretoria right now, and the situation is relatively calm; also in Johannesburg, it is calm.
“So what we had before was an isolated happening in KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, which was contained and which informed the prompt response by the government in terms of issuing that directive to the people, and again, we have also issued some advisories which call for caution,” he added.
Political Opportunists
Ajayi further blamed the violence on political opportunists, who he said do not represent the host government.
“And as I said, what you saw in terms of what is in your optics, you know, in social media, there are so many optics being put there. Some of them are not even right now.
“I wouldn’t say that the police are complicit, and I wouldn’t say that the government is involved in that, but what I will say is that we’ve been engaging together with the government, with the authorities in South Africa, to de-escalate whatever might come from there,” said the envoy.
“And as I mentioned, these are being fuelled by political opportunists. Those people you are seeing do not represent the entire South African community.
“They are just people acting on their paymasters. And we have to ensure that we take the well-being of our people, particularly in Nigeria, we take it as a priority here.
“We have engaged with the authorities as I mentioned. There was a high-level meeting that happened on the 8th of April, where we engaged and we had reassurance, a lot of reassurances from the South African government.
“And as a follow-up to that, we have issued a lot of advice to our people in terms of remaining calm and obeying, I mean, respecting the local laws and customs. So based on that, we’ve done that, and we continue to engage,” he added.