African Countries, Celebrities Boycott South Africa Over Xenophobic Attacks

The resurgence of xenophobic attacks on other African nationals in South Africa appear to be taking a toll between the country and other countries in the continent.

This comes as some African countries and celebrities have decided to boycott South Africa over recent reports of attacks and looting of foreign-owned shops the country’s citizens.

At least five persons were said to have lost their lives in the series of recent anti-foreigner violence witnessed in the country on Sunday, September 2, 2019.

The South Africans are said to be staging the attacks over fear of losing their jobs to foreigners.

African Leaders ‘Pull Out’ Of World Economic Forum In South Africa

Unconfirmed reports have it that the presidents of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Malawi have decided not to partake in the World Economic Forum (WEF) scheduled to hold in Cape Town, South Africa, from September 4^th to 6^th due to the attacks on foreigners.

Reacting to the alleged boycott, WEF’s Head of Africa and Member Executive Committee, Elsie Kanza, said, “One of the leaders – Rwanda – unfortunately had to cancel his participation last week, before the very unfortunate events [violent protests].”

“The World Economic Forum and the South African government teams have been following up on the delegations from the DRC and Malawi, because while they indicated that they would be participating they never completed their registration,” Kanza was quoted by eNCA to have said.

Nigerian Stars Boycott South Africa

Reports of the Sunday attacks also lead to some heated exchanges between Nigerian and South African celebrities, with some Nigerian stars joining the boycott.

Singer Burno Boy, alongside Nigerian rapper Ycee, had called out South African rapper AKA in series of tweets on Tuesday, accusing him of fueling xenophobic tensions in his tweets after South Africa lost to Nigeria in the last AFCON quarter-finals.

Burna Boy, who claimed to have had “xenophobic experiences at the hands of South Africans ” in 2017, vowed never to visit South Africa until something is done about anti-foreigner attacks in the country.

Nigerian singer, Tiwa Savage, also took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce cancellation of her scheduled performance at DSTV’s ‘Delicious Festival” in the country. She was the only Nigerian musician billed to perform among other South African artists at the concert.

Zambia Cancels Football Friendly With South Africa

Zambia had also called off international friendly match with South Africa over reports of anti-foreigners attacks in the country,

The football match had been scheduled to take place on Saturday in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka.

“This is because of the security concerns, you never know what can happen,” Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) secretary general Adrian Kashala, told AFP news agency. “We want to be sure of the security of [the] visiting team,” he added.

Reports Of Boycott Are Untrue

According to a local media report, South Africa’s Presidency has said there was “absolutely no truth” to reports that the leaders of  Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Malawi had pulled out of the upcoming World Economic Forum in the country.

The Citizen quoted presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko to have said: “Heads of state are not in the business of boycotting events. Where they have concerns they communicate them through diplomatic channels or directly with relevant head of state.

“In this case, I am aware that a number of these heads of states said to be ‘boycotting’ had either indicated a while back they were not attending or alternatively had not confirmed attendance,” she said.