Nigeria owes SA an apology, not the other way round

The sycophancy displayed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to dispatch special envoys to apologise to leaders of certain African states for the recent xenophobic violence solicited a lot of noise from several South Africans.

I agree with all who felt the apology was uncalled for – but, of course, you can’t put across an honest and truthful view without being accused of being xenophobic yourself.

It’s difficult to put different reasons other than those forwarded. That’s also because I respect the opinion-makers for their guaranteed fearlessness to speak truth to power.

Anything said by independent political economy analyst Zamikhaya Maseti and former Financial Mail editor Barney Mthombothi is undoubtably the truth. They are both fearless. Mthombothi always sails against the wind in a country known for its sycophantic journalism that often kow-tows to the powers-that-be.

Although Maseti was an SACP activist, he often criticises the SACP for their current tendency of neoliberalism like he was never part of its rank and file. However, he defends the party when necessary. He is not afraid to tell core Marxist Irvin Jim of Numsa when he goes off the rails – and Jim knows that.

Both Zamikhaya and Mthombothi weighed in on the Ramaphosa apologies to Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia – and strongly believe it was not needed.

Ramaphosa’s apology was unnecessary. Instead, it helped countries like Nigeria to further undermine South Africa. Abuja always regarded itself as Africa’s political and economic superpower, yet only corrupt politicians and self-made business moguls and their families enjoy the country’s riches. Nigerian public infrastructure is dilapidated and what laws there are are just disobeyed.

I once sat down with 12 Nigerian men living in South Africa. Those gentlemen were brutally honest about how corrupt the Nigerian public system was and how politicians live large in the midst of poverty among the ordinary people.

They had a lot of stories to tell about how their country exported corruption and criminality to the entire world, including human trafficking, drug peddling, and cybercrime. There are criminals who operated brothels, illegal vehicle dealerships, drug dens, reselling stolen goods at home and in the host countries.

These stories were not some social media posts sent by some bored and xenophobic Americans or British, but stories that came from the mouths of honest Nigerians who abhorred what a few of their compatriots do in other countries. They believe these criminals were spoiling things for them in host countries.

So when Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari lands on our shores for his scheduled state visit, his first task must be to apologise to this nation for the criminality and immorality that his country exported to South Africa.

President Ramaphosa is correct to say South Africans are not xenophobic. For generations, South Africans never chased away immigrants from Europe or from neighbouring Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana.

In fact, many South Africans shared direct ancestries, cultures and traditional leaderships. Many citizens of these countries had dual citizenships and citizens of these countries, living on the bordering towns and villages, frequently cross the boundaries to go drink umqombothi at the other side on weekends.

Eric Naki

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