Published on
01.10.2019 at 00h21
by
APA News
A team of special envoys dispatched to some African capitals to ease the tension caused by xenophobic attacks on Monday delivered their report to President Cyril Ramaphosa.According to the high office, the mission’s main aim to the capitals was to deliver Ramaphosa’s message of solidarity to fellow African leaders whose nationals were caught up in the bloody violent attacks unleashed on them by South Africans earlier this month.
Some 12 people died in the saga, two foreigners and 10 South Africans, according to the South African police.
Dozens of other foreigners were wounded and their property stolen or damaged, while hundreds of Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Malawians fled South Africa with the assistance of their governments and the host government.
Despite South Africa apologising for the mayhem, Pretoria received disapproval from its fellow economic powerhouse Nigeria, whose citizens embarked on revenge attacks of South African businesses like MTN.
Comprising former Justice Minister Jeff Radebe and the President’s Special Advisor on International Relations, Khulu Mbatha, the envoys visited a number of West African states in mid-September to cool the tempers down over the xenophobic attacks.
Ramaphosa “has expressed his sincere appreciation for the generosity of spirit” with which leaders of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Niger received the envoys and his message to them, the presidency said.
The mission took place after Ramaphosa had made preliminary public apologies on behalf of his violent nationals for terrorising fellow Africans — whose only crime was to take up lowly-paid jobs, the very jobs typically rejected by the South Africans themselves.