The Consulate General of Nigeria in Johannesburg has said that the attack on businesses owned by Nigerians in Witbank on Tuesday in Mpumalamga district of South Africa was a criminal act and not xenophobic.
Nigerian Consul-General in Johannesburg, Godwin Adama, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday that the attack was masterminded by taxi drivers under the guise of fighting crime.
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Mr Adama said that the cooperation of the police helped resolve the matter in less than an hour.
“We held a meeting with the police authorities and they led us to the place where the attack occurred.
“Although it happened in a different locality (from the previous one), we agreed to meet often to prevent reoccurrence,” he said.
“The police promised to invite the taxi drivers association and Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa (NICASA) to a meeting to discuss and resolve issues amicably.
“There is no problem at the moment and we are monitoring the situation keenly and we have been able to reach a reasonable stage of agreement and help out.
“The government is doing everything here to fight crime. The locals take laws into their hands thinking that the police were not doing enough, which is what mostly leads to attack.
“People feel there is drug or human trafficking and security operatives are not meeting expectations, and so they take laws into their hands in order to fight crime, but it does not work that way.
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“There was nothing like xenophobia; this attack was crime-related and it is just that some criminals took advantage of the opportunity to carry out crime.”
Reports of the attacks on Tuesday in which three Nigerians were wounded had raised tension over a possible renewal of xenophobic attacks.
