LIMPOPO – THE deputy minister for arts and culture, Rejoice Mabudafhasi has urged Africans to unite and fight against what she termed ‘foreign tendencies’ which encouraged hatred against other African nationals. Speaking at an Africa Day celebration event held at Makuleke village under the theme, ‘Building better Africa and a better world’, the deputy minister said South Africa was not different from other African countries and therefore Africans should not hate other African nationals.
“We’re one nation as Africans, so we should not be fighting among ourselves,” she said, adding that Africans were known to embrace the culture of caring towards one another. “Xenophobia has to stop,” she continued urging the community to work towards uniting Africa. “We must not allow ourselves to be divided by other countries,” she said. The division by other countries is evident at international conferences where African leaders meet with leaders of other countries, she said.
“When we say as Africa we must take a decline because we’re developing countries, you’d have other countries outside Africa trying to divide us by offering some incentives. This is what we must refuse to accept as Africans,” she said. The deputy minister further said that traditional leaders had an important role to play in uniting Africans. Government remained committed to social cohesion and nation building. “We’re therefore, saying that South Africa belongs to all who lived in it regardless of colour or where they come from,” she said.
