The Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri - Erewa on Saturday said South African politicians fuel xenophobic attacks by telling citizens that foreigners , including Nigerians , are dating their women and taking their jobs .
Speaking on a television programme , she admitted that there were foreigners who commit crime in South Africa , and they can be dealt with , but not by discriminating against Nigerians or any other race or country, an online news medium , The Cable reports .
Dabiri - Erewa who spoke on The Osasu Show, noted that xenophobic attacks in South Africa were driven by hate speech and misinformation.
She said , “ There are people who commit crime in South Africa , such people are in any country. If South Africa is fighting crime ; let it fight crime , not fight brothers and sisters , who are legitimately working in South Africa ,
“ Don ’ t forget that these attacks happened in the past . This is the seventh attack . The last one was in 2015 … the king of Zulu made some remarks that were inciting , that led to the last attack .
“ This particular one , let’ s look at the circumstances. Fine , there are economic issues everywhere in the world . Politicians are campaigning and telling their people , ‘ you know what, drive these criminals away, they are taking your jobs, and they are taking your women too ’ . ” The SSA advised South Africa companies operating in Nigeria to do more to educate South Africans on the need to stop xenophobia.
She said , “ Imagine MTN sending text messages to everyone in South Africa , saying Xenophobia is bad , don ’ t do this and that .
“ They should embark on some corporate social responsibility . Those multinationals should get up and do something . DStv should be doing various jingles on why xenophobia is bad , they should take over the awareness campaign . ”
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