‘It is xenophobic, tribalistic’: Uproar over SANDF CFO’s Ghanaian nationality

The appointment of a Ghanaian-born chief financial officer (CFO), Edem Abotsi, at the department of defence has ignited intense controversy and debate on X, with many users expressing hesitation over a foreign national leading an essential component of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).

It is understood Abotsi has been serving as acting CFO for the past 18 months and had held the position of CFO services at defence headquarters Armscor Building in Erasmuskloof.

His extended acting status brought concerns, particularly with regard to his role in addressing issues like illegal mining.

The thread revealed a range of conflicting views.

Edgar Legoale wrote: “If he is qualified and never involved in any corruption. What’s the problem? Is he here in South Africa illegally? Stop propaganda. Stop hating on our African brothers please”.

Andi Twala said: “But he’s a CFO! It has nothing to do with anything, just money. No control over soldiers. Close and control borders.”

Selby Nhleko asked: “How can the whole army be in the hands of a foreigner?”

Political analyst Goodenough Mashego said it did not matter who occupied which position, what was important was the law allowing that a foreigner could occupy that particular position. If an individual was constitutionally identified as a South African and had a South African ID, “whatever high position they occupied”, they would still undergo a secret vetting.

“So you are not going to want to simply be in that position. The secret establishment order will know who you are and what your intentions are and they’re not going to allow you to occupy that position if there is something of concern,” he said.

“Even in the foundation called the current South Africa, there were migrants in the system. From the 1890s up until 1960s when Africa was liberating, some of the people who worked in the mines in South Africa came from as far as Malawi.

“So, the odds of people in South Africa not having been born in South Africa, but now being South African, either permanent residents or students, are very high.”

In terms of whether this might impact the country’s ability to address domestic challenges effectively, Mashego said the only important thing should be based on whether the person could do the job or not.

“For example, Kevin Malunga is Zimbabwean by parentage but he rose to the position of deputy public protector [PP] under Thuli Madonsela. Another example is the deputy treasurer-secretary of the United States, a Nigerian who now has American citizenship, because at the end of the day, it’s about where your loyalties lie and which citizenship you hold.

“People really need to start judging people by whether they do the job or they don’t.”

It is xenophobic and tribalistic, he said.

Mashego said xenophobia in SA was not solely based on joblessness or the impact of illegal mining, but also on certain narrative of “exceptionalism” ingrained in the minds of South Africans by those that upheld them before.

“This has nothing to do about jobs being taken. They are people from other countries who are foreigners, working all over the world in different countries.

“South Africans need to nip this xenophobic thing in the bud because … then they’ll be able to look at just the character of a person as to where a person comes from,” he said.

The department of defence in a statement said it was “malicious and unfair to associate Abotsi, a naturalised South African citizen since 1999, with illegal nationals who are in the country and are alleged to be involved in criminal activities”.