In one video circulating widely on social media, officials affiliated with a local civic organisation were seen ordering a Nigerian trader to close his shop and leave the country. In another, groups of protesters marched through streets compelling foreign-owned businesses to cease operations, with scenes of migrants fleeing for safety as tensions flared.
A separate viral video shows activist Victoria Africa, also known as Queen Vee, alongside a group of locals surrounding a Ghanaian national and demanding to see his travel documents.
The man appeared visibly distressed as members of the group shouted at him. He told the group he was not carrying his passport because of the rain but said he had a travel document confirming his entry into South Africa in April 2026.
His explanation was dismissed, with the group accusing him of attempting to settle permanently in the country rather than returning to Ghana.
The incidents have set off a diplomatic crisis between South Africa and Ghana. Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa summoned South Africa’s Acting High Commissioner Thando Dalamba on April 23, citing a case in which a Ghanaian lawyer was confronted, asked to prove his legal status and ordered to leave South Africa. Ablakwa warned that past episodes of this nature had led to loss of life and property and called for decisive intervention to prevent further escalation.
South African authorities responded on Friday, promising to crack down on anyone carrying out or inciting xenophobic attacks, with the police ministry stating that all those found participating in such acts would be identified, apprehended and brought before the courts.
South Africa’s police minister Firoz Cachalia said acts of xenophobia, violence, looting or intimidation would not be tolerated under any circumstances and that police had been instructed to act decisively and without hesitation.
The latest flare-up is part of a pattern that has been building for months. In early April, at least 26 Nigerians were reportedly injured and hospitalised and property worth millions of rands destroyed after South Africans took out their anger on Nigerian businesses following the installation of a Nigerian Igbo community leader as king in the coastal city of KuGompo, formerly known as East London.
South Africa’s unemployment rate currently exceeds 32 percent, with youth unemployment topping 60 percent, providing the economic frustration that anti-immigrant groups have consistently exploited to stoke hostility toward foreign nationals.
For Nigerians and other West Africans in South Africa, the message from the streets is increasingly direct, leave or face the consequences.
