South Africa’s MTN concerned over violence against its property in Nigeria

This comes as global media report that Nigerian protesters vandalised the MTN head office in Abuja‚ in apparent retaliation for xenophobia in Gauteng.

A resident of Rosettenville took this video of protests in front of a night club on Verona Street in Rosettenville.

He however condemned the attack saying they were not happy too.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadijat Abba-Ibrahim, while addressing newsmen at the ministry yesterday urged South Africa to bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice.

A Reuters reporter could see no obvious damage from the outside of the building which had been cordoned off.

“They forcefully entered the MTN office”.

“Some protesters were touts; some were students. The union is anxious about the development because the South African police are yet to arrest those who perpetrated last Saturday’s attacks”. “One of them even suggested that they should go to the embassy”, the source said.

It came as Phuthuma Nhleko, the group’s chairman, was in Abuja to meet Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice-president, who is running the country in President Muhammadu Buhari’s absence.

“I wish to appeal to all South Africans to desist from rhetoric or actions that are xenophobic”, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba told a press conference. The telco enjoined people to exercise restraint and remain calm.

“We condemn the attacks, looting and burning of property owned by foreign nationals and call on citizens to refrain from… taking the law into their own hands”, it said.

“Our people and other foreigners are apparently living in fear of unknown as the hoodlums have promised more attacks”, Nigerian Union South African (NUSA) spokesman Emeka Ezinteje Collins said.

“We had challenges in the past, during the period of the fine, and we are grateful for the role, the Commission played towards an amicable resolution”, Nhleko said.

“In science they say you use malaria to cure malaria, now you use madness to cure their madness, and that is why we are advising them to leave Nigerian soil before 48 hours“.

A series of xenophobic attacks on foreigners in South Africa have provoked an angry response in Nigeria, where protesters ransacked the offices of a South African telecoms giant Thursday. “They also discuss concerns such as competition for space” for small informal shops in townships.

He said they had directed all security officials to be visible in communities and to objectively deal with criminality, regardless of whether it is committed by a South African or a foreign national.