Xeno attacks: SA High Commissioner comments undiplomatic – Former UN adviser

A former governance adviser at the United Nation (UN) Prof. Baffuor Agyeman Duah has criticised the South African High Commissioner to Ghana’s responses to concerns over xenophobic attacks in her country.

The High Commissioner Lulu Xingwana in an interview with Starr News, among other things, asked African governments to create jobs for their citizens to discourage them from travelling to South Africa for greener pastures.

“And this starts from poverty, all of our countries must create jobs and opportunities for their people so that we don’t all flock to one country because the one country would not be able to cope. If all of us were coming to Ghana, would you cope? Would you?” she said on Starr Today on Starr FM.

“That’s why I say it’s crime, it’s poverty, in Ghana in south Africa, in Zimbabwe, in Nigeria everywhere. And then people will leave these countries and any other country and think they can find something in South Africa,” she said.

The High Commissioner also she also said foreigners sell fake goods in South Africa.

“Fake goods are actually destroying our economy. People cannot bring fake goods and sell them in the streets of Johannesburg and the police don’t act. Foreigners that are doing the fake business. People will bring these things from Somalia. Some of these things are poisonous. Poor people do not know because they are cheaper. Then they will buy and get sick.”

Xingwana said it was wrong for anyone to attribute the violence being recorded in South Africa to hatred of other African nationals.

Speaking on the Morning Starr Thursday, Prof. Agyeman Duah said the diplomat could have chosen a different approach in communicating.

‘On this call, she was not as diplomatic as a diplomat should be. The attacks are consistent and that is where the problem seems to be. Every ambassador would speak just like the SA ambassador spoke. She put the whole issue in global context which is correct,” he told Starr News.