Zulu King's peace rally appeared to be chants for more xenophobic attacks- Pratt

A rally held by South Africa's Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, to put a possible stop to xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals has been described by Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper as frightening and looked more like a call for more attacks.

Kwesi Pratt said the if attitude and response of the thousands of youth gathered at a stadium are anything to go by then the barbaric acts may just continue.

Speaking on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', he said “the crowd was singing anti foreigner songs asking that more foreigners should be attacked. They called for foreigners to leave and booed the speaker who said foreigners should stay in South Africa.

“The rally was more frightening than what the king said”, he added.

The Zulu king is reported to have fueled the xenophobic attacks after saying that all foreigners must “go back to their countries.” He was responding to a company which said it would only employ foreign nationals.

His comments were followed by the looting and killing of foreign nationals in the KwaZulu Natal Province of the country.

The king, who said he has been misreported, held a rally to correct the perception but this seemed not to have worked.

Mr Pratt said the South Africans through their actions have been ungrateful to the numerous African nations that helped them out of apartheid.

For Ghana, late president Dr Kwame Nkrumah used a large amount of the state's resources to purchase weapons to support the fight against apartheid, he revealed.

South African nationals who schooled in Ghana during that time, did so for free, “Nkrumah paid their fees, gave them free food and allowance, he recounted.

The monies spent on the liberation of South Africa if invested in the economy of Ghana would have yielded fruitful results and Ghanaians will not have travelled there in search of jobs, he added.

With several South African businesses operating in Ghana, he questioned how South Africans would feel if Ghana also decides to prevent them from doing business here.

Mr Pratt noted that although the blacks in South Africa have legitimate concern about the lack of jobs and the harsh economic conditions there, killing other black nationals is not the best way to express their frustrations.

“The true fact is that apartheid is not over in South Africa. The African National Congress (ANC) are still running the apartheid structure and are not working in the interest of the blacks”, he alleged.

He believes that instead of directing their anger on fellow blacks, they should focus their anger, in moderation on Jacob Zuma and the whites who owned multinational companies and are “in bed with Jacob Zuma and the ANC”.

He advised that people should not use these developments in South Africa to do anything untoward to South African Nationals in Ghana.

“We have to show that we are the people of Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana and we are a more sensible lot”, he said.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Naa Sakwaba Akwa | [email protected]