South Africa is currently hit by a surge of xenophobic violence in its largest city, drawing criticism from other African countries during the week in which political and business leaders from at least 28 countries gathered in Cape Town for the World Economic Forum.
However, this is not the first time such attacks have occurred in Nelson Mandela’s country. The main targets this time are Nigerians and Zambians. Other African countries and their citizens have responded to attacks in South Africa. The presidents of the country, Cyril Ramaphosa, condemned the barbaric attacks to the Africa foreigners.
The xenophobic attacks in South Africa have seven effects:
- The Zambia Football Federation has canceled an international friendly match against South Africa scheduled for Saturday in Lusaka, the capital. “It’s for security reasons, and you never know what can happen,” Zambia Football Federation General Secretary Adrian Kashala told the AFP news agency. “We want to ensure the safety of our team,” he added.
- Zambia prohibits the broadcasting of South African music: Hot FM is a popular radio station in Zambia. The national FM radio refuses to play South African music.
- Celebrity refusal to perform in South Africa: Afrobeats’ Nigerian star Burna Boy vowed never to visit South Africa until the government “wakes up”. In his tweet, he said that he had himself experienced his “xenophobic experiences in the hands of South Africans” in 2017. Another Nigerian singer, Tiwa Savage, also announced on Twitter that she is withdrawing from a concert she planned to perform in South Africa in September, condemning “the barbaric massacre of my people”.
- African leaders boycott World Economic Forum: Presidents of DRC, Malawi, Nigeria, and Rwanda will not participate in the WEF held in South Africa. It has also reported that other African countries will also boycott the event due to recent attacks against African nationals in Gauteng.
- South African Embassy closed in Nigeria: South Africa closed diplomatic missions in Nigerian cities of Abuja and Lagos after “receiving information and threats from some Nigerians”, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lunga Ngqengelele said.
- South African-owned companies looted abroad: In Nigeria, vandals broke windows to penetrate the offices of MTN, a South African telecommunications company and stole objects, including laptops. They also looted shops owned by South Africans. A similar situation occurred in Zambia.
- Nigeria recalls its ambassador to South Africa.
Nigeria recalled ambassador to South Africa, Ambassador Kabiru Bala, in the escalation of the conflict.
