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18.04.2015 General News

Ghanaian In South Africa Killings

By Daily Guide
Ghanaian In South Africa Killings
18.04.2015 LISTEN

A Ghanaian has been confirmed among foreigners killed in South Africa in xenophobic attacks that have been raging on for a couple of weeks now.

Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh confirmed the death of Emmanuel Kwesi Quarcoo and said his body was found by the roadside with head injuries in the port city of Durban in the Kwazulu Natal Province.

Locals are hunting for foreigners and attacking foreign shop owners who they accuse of taking their jobs. Some of the victims were roasted in broad daylight to the chagrin of passersby.

Police fired rubber bullets and a stun grenade to disperse a gang of lawless South Africans who had armed themselves with machetes, axes, clubs and other offensive weapons in a district in Johannesburg.

At least, 12 people were arrested overnight for allegedly trying to break into 'foreign-owned shops,' according to the police, and not less than six African immigrants are believed to have been killed in the mayhem.

Protesters set cars alight and clashed with the police as they demanded that workers from elsewhere in Africa and Southern Asia should leave the country. Dozens of foreigners had to seek refuge at police stations and other secure areas.

Zulu King's Comment
The xenophobic attacks reared their ugly heads days after a prominent Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini, had said in a remark reported by local media, that foreigners should 'take their bags and go.'

In a recorded speech sent to a local broadcaster, the king had reportedly said: 'We must deal with our own lice' and complained about foreign-owned shops, but has since said his comments were misinterpreted.

President Zuma's Caution
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma told parliament in Cape Town last Thursday that the ANC government had condemned perpetrators of the violence, calling it a 'violation' of the country's values.

'No amount of frustration or anger can ever justify the attacks on foreign nationals and the looting of their shops,' he said. 'We condemn the violence in the strongest possible terms. The attacks violate all the values that South Africa embodies,' he noted.

ECOWAS Concern
West Africa sub-regional body, ECOWAS, has condemned the 'barbaric, criminal and xenophobic murder of innocent African foreigners in South Africa'.

Ghana's President, John Mahama, who is the chairman of ECOWAS, issued a statement urging the South African government to act quickly to stop the increasing wave of attacks on African foreigners in the country.

He described as a pity, the fact that the very people whose nations sacrificed to help South Africans fight, repel and defeat apartheid, would today be considered aliens and hacked to death in such barbaric manner.

Nana Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in a statement to condemn the brutalities, said he received the news with 'shock' and called on the Ghana mission in South Africa to be 'a lot more helpful with the flow of information' about the fate of Ghanaians in the Rainbow Nation.

'Over the past few days, I have learnt with utmost shock about the sickening and despicable acts of appalling brutality being perpetrated by local mobs in some parts of South Africa against immigrants, mainly black Africans and their businesses,' Nana Addo stated.

He added, 'I condemn in the strongest terms these acts of persecution, which have so far, according to reports, claimed the lives of at least six people, including a 14-year-old boy. There are also unconfirmed reports of a Ghanaian being among the dead. We expect Ghana's mission in South Africa to be a lot more helpful with the flow of information, for Ghanaians are worried about the fate of our compatriots in South Africa.

'I extend my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed in these unacceptable attacks.

My thoughts and prayers are with the injured and the displaced.'

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