Eighteen Ghanaians in Pretoria, South Africa, have been rescued to safety after attacks on immigrants by some locals.
A communication from Ghana’s Mission in that country, said the 18 were rescued after one of them sent a distress call to the mission. A group of South Africans called Namelodi Concerned Residents, are accusing non South Africans of taking over their jobs and leaving them jobless.
A few of the Ghanaians are reported to have sustained various degrees of injury.
Following the renewed xenophobic attacks, over one hundred and forty suspects have been arrested after clashes with migrants, left some of the migrants, including Ghanaians injured.
The High Commission says the 18 Ghanaians rescued are now safe.
Narrating to Citi News how the attacks began, a reporter based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Larenzo Themba, said “what was supposed to be a peaceful march against illegal immigrants nearly turned out to be quite chaotic where the Police were forced to try and calm situations under the disguise of anti immigrants; but the situation is quite peaceful now and we haven’t seen any sort of violence taking place.”
She said the attacks started when “a protest being staged by concerned residents was hijacked by a group of youth mainly from other townships, and started to really cause chaos, intimidating foreign nationals and looting a shop.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, had told Parliament a week ago that, Ghanaians in South Africa were paranoid over xenophobic attacks in some parts of that country.
“In Mamelodi, a suburb in Pretoria, there is general fear and apprehension within the various foreign communities including that of Ghana following a decision by a local to organize an anti-foreigner march today to protest at what he referred to as South African nationals being tired of enslavement and being deprived of job opportunities in their own country,” she added.
She told Parliament on Friday that her outfit has adopted stringent measures to ensure the safety of Ghanaians living in South Africa.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
