Naledi Pandor Fires Back at Ghana and Nigeria Over SA Migration Criticism
- Former International Relations Minister Dr Naledi Pandor pushed back against African governments that blamed South Africa for anti-migrant violence
- Pandor made her remarks during an interview on the African Renaissance Podcast alongside former EFF MP Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi
- The former minister argued that migration to South Africa reflects failures by African governments to provide for their own citizens
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Source: Getty Images
SOUTH AFRICA — Former International Relations Minister Dr Naledi Pandor has challenged African governments, including those of Ghana and Nigeria, to turn attention inward rather than directing blame at South Africa over violence against foreign nationals.
Pandor made the remarks during an interview on the African Renaissance Podcast, joined by former EFF MP Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi. Her comments arrive as anti-migrant sentiment continues to simmer in South Africa, with various groups maintaining pressure on government over undocumented migrants despite repeated calls for restraint.
African leaders avoiding hard questions
The former minister said she was disappointed by the posture taken by some African governments, arguing they were sidestepping uncomfortable questions about conditions within their own borders.
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"I was quite familiar with seeing leaders avoid difficult questions," she said.
Pandor argued that people arrive in South Africa either seeking economic opportunity or fleeing political persecution, and that both reflect structural failures elsewhere on the continent.
"A number of countries on the African continent are not doing what they should in order to provide for their people," she said.
She identified poor economic performance, restricted freedoms, and human rights concerns as the primary forces pushing migrants southward.
"You're not getting the economies right and you don't have freedom of association, freedom of expression and human rights. The people are running to South Africa because those things exist here," Pandor said.
Government not behind anti-migrant attacks
Pandor also defended the South African government against suggestions that it condones or encourages hostility towards foreign nationals. She said African leaders privately understood that the state was not orchestrating the violence.
"I think that the leaders know that the government of South Africa is not behind what was happening here," she said.
She argued it was unjust to hold the entire country accountable for the conduct of specific anti-migration groups operating outside government policy.
The former minister called on African leaders to direct their energy towards economic development, infrastructure investment, rural upliftment, and youth opportunity as the true remedies to the migration crisis.
"All those problems of development are very closely linked to the issue of migration," she said.
Pandor maintained that migration must be treated as a shared continental challenge rather than a burden placed exclusively at South Africa's door.
SA and Nigeria pledges closer cooperation
Briefly News also reported that International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola travelled to Abuja to meet Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. The two countries discussed bilateral cooperation amid recent tensions following anti-illegal immigration protests. Lamola also explained the South African government’s stance on xenophobic violence following allegations of Afrophobic attacks.
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Source: Briefly News
