The South African government has promised to do everything to protect Nigerians from xenophobic attacks as violence in the country quelled by the government.
There has been report of attacks on foreigners in South Africa with Nigeria specifically calling on the African Union to look into these issues.
Vanguard reports that Lulu Mnguni who is the South African high commissioner to Nigeria condemned the attacks insisting that his country and Nigeria has a lot to benefit together.
READ ALSO: South African High Commissioner promises to end xenophobic attacks
He said: “Issues about development and even issues about business, we say why can’t South Africans engage in small businesses and Nigerians and other Africans come together and form some partnerships and come to see actually how advantageous it is to work together as people from different countries in doing business just like the big businesses.
“When South Africans come here to Nigeria, they form partnership and they thrive in business. Look at MTN. It was formed by South Africans and Nigerians and now it is one of the best companies in the world, even competing with companies from Europe.
“So let them work together, and many nations that are actually working together, that is of benefit to all. Business is business; so let them work together and, by so doing, they can be an example. They must work within the context of our time tested relations which worked so well that we were able to defeat the strongest enemy. Let us learn that we can even defeat hunger, unemployment by working together.
“We are not condoning this, we will not condone this, it is has not given a good reflection of Africa. It is undoing our history, all that we have worked and striven for. And some of these problems must be viewed as a South African problem or a Nigerian problem. Sometimes we have to work together to see how best we can contain this because the issue of our development is a South African thing; most of the people who have left their countries to come to South Africa did so because of our development, and it is because of poverty, it is because of unemployment.
“So we need to work together to see how we can address this issue of hunger, underdevelopment, unemployment, etc. We have said no amount of frustration or poverty could be used as an excuse to engage in these attacks. We need to always work together.
“People need to see that there is something that is threatening our cohesion, our unity and we have to say how can we be doing this? Even if it happens, it can happen in Nigeria and in any other place; it is our challenge as Africans and we must see how best we can deal with this.
“There is no responsible government, not even the ANC government that can feel comfortable when such things happen. Our people were given places when we were being chased and hunted like chicken. We had to come to countries like Nigeria, Tanzania, Angola etc”.
South Africa speaks about xenophobic attacks on Nigerians
“So our country stands firmly against things such as racism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism. We are against anybody being discriminated against because of his gender, country of origin because our Constitution clearly states that South Africa belongs to all irrespective of where they come from as long as these people respect the laws of the country and our Constitution.”
READ ALSO: Students give 48 hours ultimatum to South African companies in Nigeria to relocate
He said Nigerians in his country must respect the laws of the land, shun prostitution and stop the distribution of banned substances..
“Sometimes Nigerians ask me: Ambassador, when I go to South Africa, what is expected of me? I say nothing much except that you respect the laws of our country, if you do that, then you will be okay. All we can say is that the government instructed the security life guards to ensure that these matters are resolved to the satisfaction of both South Africans and foreign nationals and we have deployed our security forces in those areas; yes of course you find that when you are looking this way, things can be happening in another direction. But we say also foreign nationals when they are in South Africa, they must respect the laws of the country and our Constitution, they must not engage in illegal activities especially things such as dr*gs and of course not taking young girls into prostitution.”
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