Mahama Presses AU Commission Chair on South Africa Xenophobia, Says Ramaphosa's Envoy Was Briefed on Ghana's Position
President John Dramani Mahama has used the sidelines of the African Union Extraordinary Summit in Accra to renew Ghana's push for the African Union to formally take up the escalating xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa, disclosing that AU Commission Chairperson Mahamoud Ali Youssouf has acknowledged the need to place the matter before the next AU Summit.
Speaking during bilateral talks with the AU Commission chief at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, July 22, President Mahama said the issue could no longer be set aside, citing the cost Ghana has borne evacuating its citizens from South Africa three completed charter flights, with three more under way to bring home roughly 900 Ghanaians who have registered to return, alongside reintegration fees and allowances paid by the state.
The President also revealed that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had sent a special envoy to Accra on July 21 to discuss the situation directly with him. Mahama said he used the meeting to lay out Ghana's position plainly: Accra holds no ill will toward Pretoria, but remains deeply troubled by the attacks and by the significant financial losses suffered by nationals of several African countries. Left unaddressed, he warned, the pattern undermines the spirit of African solidarity and the continent's wider integration agenda.
"Sometimes these things happen, and we want to sweep them under the carpet, but when we do that, we do not cure what the problem is," Mahama said, explaining why Ghana had formally written to the AU Commission requesting that the matter be placed on the agenda for the next Summit. Putting the issue on the AU's table, he argued, gives South Africa a constructive, formal platform to present its own account, while allowing the continent to work jointly toward a lasting solution rather than a bilateral standoff.
Ghana Has Been Building This Case for Weeks
Wednesday's exchange with the AU Commission chairperson is the latest step in a campaign Ghana has been pursuing since early June. Ghana's Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory on non-essential travel to South Africa, summoned South Africa's envoy to lodge a formal protest, and requested the issue be tabled at the AU's Mid-Year Coordination Summit in Cairo on June 24.
Days later, at the 69th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Mahama secured ECOWAS backing for Ghana's request to have the matter placed on the AU Summit agenda, telling fellow heads of state that Africa's liberation was built on cross-border solidarity that the continent could not now afford to abandon.
The diplomatic strain has had visible costs. A state visit by Ramaphosa to Ghana, originally planned for early August to co-chair the Ghana–South Africa Bi-National Commission, was postponed by mutual agreement amid the unresolved tensions. South Africa's International Relations Minister, Ronald Lamola, met Mahama in Accra this week as part of Pretoria's effort to repair the relationship with Ghana and other continental partners rattled by weeks of anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence.
For Mahama who is in line to assume the AU chairmanship in 2027 the push to formalize the issue on the AU agenda positions Ghana as insisting that xenophobia be treated as a continental governance question rather than a matter left to bilateral diplomacy alone.
Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.
International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP
mustysallama@gmail.com
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References / Sources
MyJoyOnline "Mahama urges AU to act on xenophobic attacks in South Africa" (July 22, 2026) https://www.myjoyonline.com/mahama-urges-au-to-act-on-xenophobic-attacks-in-south-africa/
Graphic Online “President tasks ECOWAS to implement protocols on xenophobic attacks" https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/ghana-news-president-tasks-ecowas-to-implement-protocols-on-xenophobic-attacks.html
"President Mahama seeks AU action over xenophobic attacks against Ghanaians, Nigerians in South Africa" (July 20, 2026) https://www.ghanamma.com/2026/07/20/president-mahama-seeks-au-action-over-xenophobic-attacks-against-ghanaians-nigerians-in-south-africa/
ModernGhana "Ghana vs. Pretoria: Inside the Diplomatic Rift Over South Africa's Xenophobic Violence" https://www.modernghana.com/news/1508763/ghana-vs-pretoria-inside-the-diplomatic-rift.html
The Africa Report "Ghana's Mahama uninvites South Africa's Ramaphosa until xenophobic tensions resolved" https://www.theafricareport.com/424335/ghanas-mahama-uninvites-south-africas-ramaphosa-until-xenophobic-tensions-resolved/
BusinessDay (South Africa) "EXCLUSIVE | Lamola meets Mahama to repair strained ties with Ghana" (July 23, 2026) https://www.businessday.co.za/news/2026-07-23-exclusive-lamola-meets-mahama-in-bid-to-mend-sa-ghana-relations/
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