Ghana Has Shown Africa The Way: It Is Time To Make South Africa Pay A Diplomatic Price -By Isaac Asabor

Ghana deserves commendation for taking a principled and courageous stand against the recurring xenophobic attacks on Africans in South Africa. By declining a proposed state visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa until meaningful steps are taken to protect Ghanaian citizens, Accra has sent a powerful message that the lives and dignity of Africans cannot be sacrificed on the altar of diplomatic niceties.

For far too long, African governments have responded to repeated attacks on their citizens in South Africa with carefully worded statements, diplomatic caution, and symbolic condemnations that have produced little or no change. The result has been a tragic cycle of violence in which African migrants are attacked, businesses are looted, lives are lost, promises are made, and then the continent moves on until the next outbreak. This pattern must end.

The reported rejection of Ramaphosa’s visit is more than a diplomatic decision. It is an affirmation that no African leader should expect ceremonial honours abroad while fellow Africans are being hunted, assaulted, and, in some cases, murdered within his country’s borders.

According to reports, about 1,000 Ghanaians have already been forced to return home because of the latest wave of xenophobic violence, while hundreds more are preparing for repatriation. The killing of a Ghanaian national on June 30 further underscores the gravity of the crisis. These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a disturbing pattern that has stained South Africa’s democratic image for well over a decade.

The irony remains painful. This is as South Africa was once the beneficiary of extraordinary African solidarity during the dark years of apartheid. Countries across the continent, despite their own economic hardships, provided refuge to South African exiles, funded liberation movements, and mobilized international support against racial oppression. Nations such as Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and many others stood firmly with South Africans during their struggle for freedom.

Many African countries paid enormous economic and political costs simply because they believed apartheid was an assault on the dignity of all Africans.

Today, many citizens of those very countries are finding themselves targeted, humiliated, and brutalized in the new South Africa by fellow Africans who conveniently forget the sacrifices made on their behalf. This historical contradiction should trouble every African conscience.

While the South African government routinely condemns xenophobic violence after it occurs, condemnation without effective prevention has become an inadequate response. The repeated recurrence of these attacks raises legitimate questions about whether sufficient political will exists to dismantle the networks of hate, criminality, and misinformation that fuel anti-foreigner violence.

Governments are ultimately judged not merely by what they say after tragedies occur, but by what they do to prevent them.

Ghana’s response therefore represents a refreshing departure from the culture of diplomatic timidity that has characterized Africa’s reaction to these attacks. Rather than pretending that everything is normal, Accra has insisted that normal diplomatic engagements cannot continue while its citizens remain unsafe.

Other African governments should follow this example. This does not necessarily mean severing diplomatic relations with South Africa. Nor does it require abandoning regional cooperation within the African Union or the Southern African Development Community. But it should mean imposing meaningful diplomatic consequences until measurable progress is made.

African leaders should reconsider state visits, suspend ceremonial exchanges, and use every available diplomatic platform to demand concrete action against xenophobic violence. South Africa should not continue enjoying the full benefits of continental prestige while repeatedly failing to guarantee the safety of fellow Africans living within its territory.

In diplomatic language, such coordinated actions would effectively render South Africa a pariah state, not through isolation for its own sake, but through principled pressure aimed at compelling meaningful reform.

History offers numerous examples where diplomatic isolation has served as an instrument for positive change. Ironically, apartheid South Africa itself was subjected to political, economic, sporting, and cultural isolation because the world recognized that some injustices cannot simply be ignored in the name of diplomacy.

The present situation is obviously different in nature, but the underlying principle remains the same: persistent violations of fundamental human dignity should attract consequences.

Some may argue that South Africa itself faces serious economic challenges, unemployment, and rising crime, all of which contribute to social tensions. While these problems are undeniable, they cannot justify directing violence against innocent migrants who neither created those challenges nor possess the power to solve them.

Blaming foreigners has become an easy political distraction from deeper structural failures. It may generate temporary emotional satisfaction, but it neither creates jobs nor strengthens public institutions. Instead, it damages South Africa’s international reputation, weakens African solidarity, discourages investment, and undermines regional integration.

Even more troubling is the contradiction between South Africa’s aspiration to continental leadership and the recurring persecution of fellow Africans within its borders. Leadership demands moral authority, and moral authority cannot coexist with repeated scenes of Africans fleeing for their lives because of xenophobic violence.

The African Continental Free Trade Area is built upon the vision of freer movement of goods, services, investments, and people across Africa. That vision becomes hollow if Africans cannot safely live and work in one another’s countries.

Ghana has reminded the continent that diplomacy should never come at the expense of national dignity. By placing the safety of its citizens above protocol, it has demonstrated what responsible leadership looks like.

The challenge now is whether the rest of Africa will summon similar courage. If African governments continue responding to every wave of xenophobic violence with expressions of concern alone, they should not be surprised when the attacks become even more frequent.

South Africa remains an important nation whose contributions to Africa are undeniable. Yet friendship among nations, like friendship among individuals, carries responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is protecting the lives of fellow Africans who live, work, study, and contribute to society within its borders.

Until South Africa demonstrates through sustained action, not merely official statements, that Africans from across the continent can live there without fear of persecution, the rest of Africa should adopt Ghana’s firm but measured approach.

Sometimes, the strongest expression of friendship is refusing to pretend that everything is fine when it clearly is not.