International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has come out swinging against his Ghanaian counterpart, rejecting a string of allegations that foreign nationals were killed, wounded, and unlawfully hounded in large numbers during the recent wave of anti-immigration unrest in South Africa.
The minister said he had personally verified each claim with South African law enforcement and state authorities, and concluded that the bulk of them simply did not hold up. His response was pointed, public, and unusually blunt for a diplomat.
Lamola was reacting to remarks made by Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Ablakwa, in a recent Ghanaian media interview. He said he watched the interview “with shock and disappointment”, describing it as “riddled with misinformation and factual inaccuracies”.
At the heart of the dispute is a clash over numbers. Where Ablakwa painted a picture of widespread violence and mass mistreatment, Lamola insisted the verified figures tell a very different story.
One of the first claims he knocked down was the assertion that 80% of Ghanaians repatriated from South Africa had been in the country legally. According to Lamola, that figure is wrong and the correction has already been passed on to the High Commissioner.
He was equally firm on the deaths. Lamola flatly denied reports that two Nigerian nationals had been killed in the current unrest, saying every law enforcement agency and state authority he consulted found no record of any such killing.
On the Mozambican side, he pushed back against a claim that five Mozambican nationals had died. The confirmed number, he said, is two, and the South African Police Service is actively investigating with possible arrests expected soon.
“We deeply regret this incident and we have condemned it with the strongest terms,” Lamola said, ading that Pretoria had extended its condolences to the Mozambican government over the two confirmed deaths.
Lamola Disputes Claims of Foreign Nationals Killed and Hospitalised in South Africa
The minister also rejected a claim that 16 Ghanaian nationals had been admitted to hospitals after the unrest. He said checks with police, hospitals, and officials liaising with Ghana’s High Commission turned up nothing to back the figure.
Here is how the disputed claims stack up against what Lamola says South African authorities have verified:
| Claim by Ghana’s Minister | South Africa’s Verified Position |
|---|---|
| 80% of repatriated Ghanaians were legal | Disputed as untrue; correction sent to High Commissioner |
| Two Nigerian nationals killed | No record of any Nigerian killed in this wave |
| Five Mozambican nationals killed | Only two deaths confirmed; SAPS investigating |
| 16 Ghanaian nationals hospitalised | No evidence found across police and hospitals |
The pattern across the table is consistent: in each case Pretoria says the reported numbers were inflated or unfounded, while still acknowledging the two confirmed Mozambican deaths as a genuine and serious mater.
Beyond the numbers, Lamola took aim at how the disagreement was being handled. He criticised Ablakwa for airing grievances on social media and in media interviews rather than through established diplomatic channels.
“This proves your line of communication of intending to engage with the South African government through social media, through interviews, that it is really not helping to restore what should be cordial working relations between the two countries,” he said.
There is also a trade dimension simering beneath the row. Lamola acknowledged growing pressure in Ghana for action against South African companies operating there, noting that concerns affecting South African businesses had already been raised with Ablakwa.
Pretoria, he said, would not be caught off guard if such measures materialised. The coment hints at how quickly a dispute over the treatment of foreign nationals could spill into the commercial relationship between the two countries.
Despite the sharp exchange, Lamola was careful to keep the door open. He stressed that South Africa remains committed to cordial relations with Ghana and is willing to engage either bilaterally or through the African Union on irregular migration.
“Ghanaians are our brothers, and we want to continue to live with them, engage with them, and resolve issues amicably,” he said.
He framed irregular migration as a shared continental burden rather than a uniquely South African problem. “Irregular migration is a global challenge. It is not unique to South Africa. It will need all of us as African states to share responsibility to deal with irregular migration,” he said.
What started as a fact-check has quickly become a test of diplomacy between two influential African states. With confirmed deaths still under investigation and trade tensions hovering in the background, how Pretoria and Accra chose to talk to each other next may mater just as much as the disputed figures themselves.