NPP man links SA xenophobic attacks to booing of deputy ministers

NPP's Mike Ocquaye Jnr has said he is not surprised by recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The NPP lawyer, who condemned the xenophobic attacks in the rainbow nation, attributes the underlying cause of such violence to frustration over seeming inattention by leadership to citizens' concerns.

According to him, when leadership of a country remains insensitive to the demands of its citizens; they have the tendency to vent their frustration on those whom they perceive to be the cause of their woes.

He said he witnessed the passionate booing of President Jacob Zuma during the burial of statesman Nelson Mandela last year.

“I was shocked. Look ANC boss Zuma? booed? Especially at an ANC giant's funeral? It doesn't happen in South Africa and one of the reasons is because he doesn't seem to handle anything properly”.

Mike Oquaye stated that his checks revealed that "the people [South Africans] don't think Zuma is doing a good job". They are economically frustrated "and frustration is one thing that leads people to attack others".he said, they will first vent their ire on leadership.

The South African economy, he said, has gotten so bad that the country, which has had stable electricity for years is finally experiencing "dumsor".

"Now they have started experiencing dumsor" like Ghana, and this is "affecting the economy badly", he said.

To him, the booing of the South African president was a sign that ordinary South Africans are not being heard. He believes the intransigence of the South African government has fed the “undercurrent” of frustration which some sections have translated into xenophobic attacks.

Always, he said, a frustrated peoples will first vent their ire on leadership and when their problems are still not addressed, they will then turn that frustration into violence.

Although he could understand how such a situation could arise, he condemned the attacks outright, insisting that they are "unjustifiable, unpardonable, and unacceptable".

The phenomenon is not localised to South Africa alone, he opined.

Ocquaye Jnr argued that the recent booing and heckling of some deputy ministers is a sign to Government that the concerns of ordinary people are not be heard or addressed.

Deputy Education Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and his colleague Felix Kwakye Ofosu were Wednesday morning heckled and humiliated by students of the seven Colleges of Education in Kumasi.

The government officials were on a tour as part of a programme they have described as "Campus Connect" but the students used the occasion to protest the withdrawal of teacher trainee allowances (allawa) by the John Mahama administration.

Although Mike Ocquaye Jnr described the action as “unacceptable” he also argued that the anger had “built up”.

“When they shout campus connect, then the people respond 'y3 gye allawa' [we are demanding our allowance]. They are so angry. Why have you gone to take their allawa and tell them about campus connect? it doesn't connect”.

He called for the situation with the teacher trainees to "be resolved before it escalates to further violence".

Listen to audio
However NDC National Organiser, Kofi Adams disagrees with Mike Oquaye Jnr.

In his opinion, the problem in South Africa has nothing to do with their recent economic woes.

Kofi Adams says South Africa has always been "noted as a high crime country and this is why you're advised to be very careful where you go and at what time."

As such, "It's not just a Zuma problem".
He stated his displeasure at the level of responsiveness from South African authorities, saying that although the police are "doing their best", there is a need for a "combination of police and military in such situations".

South Africa has failed to do this, he said, relying only on the police to provide security. This just will not do.

He felt that enough has not been done to resolve the situation and insisted that the country [South Africa] needs an immediate action plan to stamp out the problem. Until then, he said, the best any country can do is evacuate their citizens from the troubled nation.