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President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned recent xenophobic attacks, which saw some South Africans attack black Africans and destroy their businesses out of defiance.
The South African leader spoke during the 2026 National Independence Day celebrations in Bloemfontein on Monday, April 27, cautioning that legitimate concerns about illegal migration lead to hatred towards fellow Africans.
He says that although South Africans are concerned about undocumented and illegal immigrants for De Conti, he says the concerns do not give rise to xenophobia.
“We must not allow any concerns to give rise to xenophobia, directed towards Pipo from the African continent or from any part of the world.
President Ramaphosa said, “As South Africans we cannot in any way allow hatred towards Odas to overpower us, Odas cannot pity us, they cannot support us, we cannot inspire hatred towards them.”
The South African leader's comments come after some recent video clips going viral online showed vigilante groups attacking and confronting Pipo Dames they believe is living in South Africa illegally. For one of the di videos, a Ghanaian man ova im challenging the situation.
Also last week, Ghana BIN summoned South Africa's top envoy to the country and reported “acts of intimidation and harassment” against DIA nationals and ODA African migrants to the southern African nation.
Furthermore, the Nigerian government says that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not negotiate with the South African government on the top issue.
“The African Union has intervened to call out the despicable xenophobic attacks against blacks in South Africa,” Abike Dabiri, president of NIDCOM, said in a briefing.
Xenophobia has long been an issue for South Africa and has sometimes led to deadly violence.
Ghanaian officials meet in person for video to offer support and also urge citizens living abroad to continue “law-abiding”.
Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa Don Tok says his government is cracking down on illegal migration and businesses that are disobeying the country's laws by hiring undocumented Pipo instead of Indian citizens.
“We are actively rooting out corruption in our immigration system.”
To my address, they advise the legal foreigners to respect the laws and traditions of the countries in India, as they want them to respect the laws and traditions of their country as well.
“We extend our hospitality to Pipo, who has become a guest of our country; we hope he will honor our generosity with respect for our society and our laws.”
E says he has already taken measures to deal with Pipo illegally.
In a statement on Friday, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) says demonstrations in several cities, including Cape Town, Durban and East London, now known as Kugompo City, have turned violent, with incidents of looting, property damage and injuries reported.
Ghana's Foreign Ministry says Dia officials will also meet with Thando Dlamba, South Africa's acting high commissioner to Ghana, to express formal protest over recent “xenophobic incidents” against foreigners, including Dia citizens.
According to official figures, South Africa is home to about 2.4 million migrants, which is just less than 4% of the total population. However, the belief informally says much more.
Most of them come from neighboring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, given their history of providing migrant labor to their wealthier neighbors. A small number come from Nigeria.
Vigilante groups such as Operation Dudula, which aims to force the Zulu language, and March on March claim that immigrants live throughout South Africa and blame immigrants for many other social problems, particularly unemployment and drug abuse.
They organize demonstrations in major cities that sometimes turn violent and result in attacks on foreign-owned shops.
Earlier this week, a protest was headed to the port city of Durban in March and a clip that circulated on social media showed some participants seriously attacking a man they believed was an illegal alien.