Cops say Ghanaian&#x2019s death linked to extortion, not xenophobia, as Accra protests

Diplomatic tension is soaring between South Africa and Ghana over the murder of a Ghanaian national in Cape Town.

Matthew Ashton/AMA/Corbis via Getty Images

Diplomatic tension is soaring between South Africa and Ghana over the murder of a Ghanaian national in Cape Town.Accra claims Bashiru Isak was killed in xenophobic violence in Khayelitsha on Monday.However,police say they only have a record of a Ghanaian by a different name shot dead in Nyanga,in what appeared to be related to extortion.The Western Cape police on Thursday said they had no record of the death of a Ghanaian man claimed by the Ghanaian foreign ministry to have died in xenophobic violence in Khayelitsha this week.

They were investigating the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Ghanaian national,Kwabena Boagen,in front of a hair salon and shoe repair shop in Nyanga on Monday “in circumstances that are believed to be linked to the crime of extortion”.

The police issued the statement after Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa registered a formal protest with the Department of International Relations and filed a complaint with the police.

In a statement issued on Wednesday,Ablakwa’s office said it had learnt with shock of the fatal shooting of a 40-year-old Ghanaian,Bashiru Isak,in Khayelitsha on Monday.

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“The government of Ghana condemns in the strongest terms this senseless act of violence and the rising tide of xenophobia,targeting African nationals,including Ghanaians,in South Africa,” the ministry said.

“The taking of any life is unacceptable,and those responsible must be brought to justice without delay.”

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The police statement came shortly before Ambassador Tebojo Seokolo,the deputy director-general: Africa at the Department of International Relations,was due to meet with Ghana’s high commissioner to South Africa,Benjamin Anani Quashie.

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“In as far as the media release issued by the Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,the South African Police Service bears no record of the Khayelitsha murder,hence an earnest plea is made to the authorities in question to provide details of the Khayelitsha incident to the SAPS in order for the matter to be probed further,” Brigadier Novela Potelwa said.

She added that Nyanga detectives were “hard at work” investigating the murder of Boagen,who lived in Khayelistha,though he worked in Nyanga.

International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola’s office described Boagen’s murder as tragic but appealed to Accra to ensure that statements are based on verified facts.

“The Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation extends its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased Ghanaian national,and to the government and people of Ghana,following the tragic loss of their citizen in the Western Cape,” it said.

“We refer to the statement issued by the South African Police Service on the matter. We once again appeal to all partners and stakeholders to work alongside the South African government in ensuring that information shared with the public is verified,accurate,and responsibly communicated.”

Lamola last month criticised the Ghanaian government for disseminating disinformation on foreigners injured and killed in violent anti-migrant protests in South Africa.

He said reports from Ghana at the time that two Nigerians were killed,and 15 Ghanaians were hospitalised after they were assaulted,have been proven to be false.

“Let’s deal with the factual issues. Don’t provide false information that there are 15 Ghanaians in our hospitals who were injured in the current wave of protests,” he told Ghana’s Joy radio.

The minister added:

We have tracked and found that there is none.

Tension between Accra and Pretoria has been soaring since early May,when Lamola learnt via a social media post from Ablakwa that Ghana had urged the African Union to place concern about xenophobia in South Africa on the agenda of a mid-year meeting of heads of state.

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Defending that decision last month,Ablakwa said: “We want to discuss it because this is at the core of what the AU stands for.

“It is really a shame that after all these decades of the African unity dream,we will have an African country target Africans. They have other migrants,but they don’t bother about those migrants of a different skin colour; they exhibit hatred,sheer hatred for fellow Africans.”