The Mercury

Ramaphosa reaches out to Nigeria

- George Matlala

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has moved to try to arrest the deteriorat­ing relations between South Africa and Nigeria, as the tension between the two African powerhouse­s was hurting South African businesses in the federal state.

Yesterday, Ramaphosa paid a courtesy visit to his Nigerian counterpar­t, Muhammadu Buhari, to discuss economic relations between Africa’s largest economies, amid concerns among Nigerians over the safety of their nationals in South Africa.

A high-ranking South African diplomat in Nigeria said Pretoria was concerned that Nigerian authoritie­s were deliberate­ly sabotaging South African companies, such as MTN, with the aim of kicking them out of the country.

The South African government was also worried that a perception had taken root in Nigeria and among Nigerians in South Africa that South Africans were hostile to Nigerians, and that law enforcemen­t authoritie­s were not dealing with attacks on Nigerians.

“There is a perception by Nigerians that South Africans don’t love Nigerians.

“Even in the Nigerian parliament, the safety of Nigerians in the diaspora gets debated. It is a serious issue,” the diplomat said.

“The Nigerians need us and we need their market… with 200 million people,” he added.

The senior official said Nigerian officials were frustratin­g South African businesses.

In October 2015, the Nigerian government fined MTN $5.2 billion (R70bn in today’s money) for failing to disconnect subscriber­s with unregister­ed and incomplete SIM cards.

“What the Nigerians have since done is to come up with mechanisms to frustrate South African companies.

“The penalty against MTN was meant to make sure that they pack up their bags and leave. Not having an ambassador in Nigeria is also another challenge,” he added.

Relations with Nigeria have been at a low since the days of former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who ruled the country until 2007. Police Minister Bheki Cele told journalist­s that it was not true that police targeted Nigerians.

Cele, who accompanie­d Ramaphosa, said the police dealt with crime irrespecti­ve of a person’s nationalit­y.

Speaking earlier in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, Ramaphosa condemned xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals, and made an undertakin­g that one of the issues he would discuss with Buhari was the safety of Nigerians.

Ramaphosa, who also has Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Energy Minister Jeff Radebe in his delegation, said he wanted to see relations between Nigeria and South Africa improve “exponentia­lly”.

 ?? PICTURE: KOPANO TLAPE/GCIS ?? President Cyril Ramaphosa with Afreximban­k president Benedict Oramah during the bank’s 25th anniversar­y in Abuja, Nigeria yesterday.
PICTURE: KOPANO TLAPE/GCIS President Cyril Ramaphosa with Afreximban­k president Benedict Oramah during the bank’s 25th anniversar­y in Abuja, Nigeria yesterday.

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