Adding Insult to Injury, S’Africa Raps Nigeria over Recalled Envoy

 President Jacob Zuma

Adeola Akinremi    

In what could be considered an unrepentant posture, South Africa has condemned Nigeria's decision to recall its ambassador over the spate of attacks against foreigners.

It called the step “unfortunate and regrettable”, stating: “It would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode.

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At least seven people have died over a month of attacks on foreigners and foreign-owned property in South Africa.

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has been blamed for sparking the attacks with comments about foreign workers.

Soldiers were deployed to flashpoints last week to prevent more violence.

Some blamed the attacks - which centred on Durban and Johannesburg - on unemployment and poor political leadership.
But in an angrily worded statement yesterday, the South African Government took a swipe at the recall of the Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, describing it as a “unfortunate and regrettable step”.

The statement issued by the spokesperson of the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Clayson Monyela, said: “The South African Government takes note that the outgoing Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has recalled its acting High Commissioner to South Africa. A government resorts to such an extraordinary diplomatic step to express outrage at actions or behaviour of another government.”

Monyela, who first released the statement through his twitter handle, describing it as “probably the strongest statement” he has ever had to write further said: “We are not sure which actions or behaviour of the South African Government the Nigerian Government is protesting. It is only Nigeria that has taken this unfortunate and regrettable step. 

“If this action is based on the incidents of attacks on foreign nationals in some parts of our country, it would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode for whatever agenda.”

Nigeria is protesting over the fact that some of her citizens were attacked and wounded in the xenophobic attacks, with valuables worth millions of naira lost.

The President of Nigerian Union in South Africa, Mr. Ikechukwu Anyene, said the losses were initially put at 1.2 million rand (N21 million), but with more attacks, it climbed to more than 4.6 million rand or N84 million.

“A mechanic’s workshop, owned by a Nigerian in Jeppes, near Johannesburg, for example, was completely burnt with the 11 cars inside it,” he explained.

However, the South African authority said despite the recall, the country remained committed to a strong bond of friendship and bilateral relations with Nigeria.

Taking aim at its rival for economic and political dominance in Africa, Pretoria said it had held off blaming Nigeria's government when 84 South Africans were killed in the collapse of a church building in Lagos on September 12, 2014.

It reminded the Nigerian government that it also refrained from blaming Nigerian authorities for the “more than nine months delay” in the repatriation of the bodies “or for the fact that when these bodies eventually returned, they were in a state that they could not be touched or viewed as required by our burial practice”.

The spokesman also took a dig at the Jonathan administration by reminding the Nigerian Government of its own security shortcomings, as laid bare by the Boko Haram insurgency, adding that it would raise its concerns through diplomatic channels with the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration.

“We shall also continue to support and not blame the Nigerian Government as it battles to deal with Boko Haram that continues to kill many innocent civilians,” the statement said.

“We hope that the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram will someday be reunited with their families.”