JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s president condemned days of widespread looting and arson attacks on foreign-owned businesses across Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria, calling the violence “totally unacceptable.”
“We are a country that is completely committed against xenophobia,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a video statement published on Twitter Tuesday. “We do not allow and cannot tolerate attacks on people from other African countries.”
Police fanned out across neighborhoods in Johannesburg and Pretoria as the violence extended into the third day in South Africa.
Police have arrested more than 90 people in five areas impacted by the violence. Many gutted, emptied shops remained closed as shop owners, many of them foreign, feared to return to their property.
“There is no justification whatsoever for people who have a sense that their jobs are being taken by people from foreign lands to attack them, to destroy properties, and actually to kill them,” said Ramaphosa. “This must be stopped.”
On Monday, African governments warned citizens living in South Africa to take safety precautions and expressed frustration with latest wave of attacks targeting foreign-owned businesses in South Africa.
The Ethiopian Embassy in South Africa advised citizens to close their shops “until peace is restored”, according to Ethiopian media, and Zambia’s Ministry of Transport and Communications warned Zambian truck drivers not to travel in to the country.
Nigeria’s Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo issued several comments, in which he condem attacks on Nigerians on his Twitter page earlier today.
The recent attacks in South Africa are condemnable. It is sad and very unfortunate that the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians living in South Africa, are once again being destroyed with such wantonness carelessness and recklessness. pic.twitter.com/vm5f1u341y
— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) September 3, 2019
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he has dispatched a Special Envoy to South Africa to convey his concerns to President Ramaphosa.
Buhari’s office said he had has also instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, to summon the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria and get a brief on the situation; express Nigeria’s displeasure over the treatment of its citizens and to get assurances of the safety of their lives and property.
Onyeama called the violence “sickening” on Twitter on Monday.
KRISTA MAHR I Associated Press I Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria contributed to this report.
