The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, today, August 28 met with President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria in Yokohama, Japan,during which time he expressed regrets ver the frequent killing of Nigerians in that country.
President Ramaphosa, who spoke to news men shortly after a bilateral talk with President Buhari on the sidelines of the ongoing seventh Tokyo International Conference for Africa Development (TICAD7) in Yokohama, said that the killing had necessitated the call for a meeting of the leaders of both countries on how to promptly nip the matter in the bud.
The South African leader assured that his country’s justice system had already taken up the matter, pointing out that he was not in support of the killings, and insisted that there was no justifiable reason for anybody to be killed.
He described the meeting he had with Buhari as a good forum for both South Africa and Nigeria to renew the bond of unity between them and simultaneously share together issues of common interest in the overall interest of the African continent.
“Well, we are going to be discussing all that because we have very good relations. We ‘ll talk about the issue of Nigerians who are dying in South Africa. We feel very upset about that.
“Obviously, our criminal justice system is working on it. We don’t support killings. Nobody should ever be killed, but it’s also good to use this opportunity here in Japan to renew the bond between us, to talk about common things between South Africa and Nigeria. We know we have to play key roles in the overall development of the continent,”
Nigerians in South Africa have over the years, become victims of xenophobic killings by citizens of their host country who often unjustifiably accuse them of robbing them of job opportunities in their own countries.
These protracted killings prompted some Nigerian students to recently stage a range of protests in the corporate offices of South African companies in Nigeria, threatening to shut them down if the killings of their fellow citizens in South Africa do not stop.
