The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has urged the South African government to move beyond condemning xenophobic violence and ensure that perpetrators are arrested and prosecuted.
He said that despite the condemnation of the attacks by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during the country’s 2026 Freedom Day celebrations last month, the violence had persisted, leading to more deaths.
Mr Afenyo-Markin said, “Words delivered from a ceremonial platform do not arrest a single perpetrator. Condemnations, however eloquent, do not bring an attacker before a magistrate. South Africa must move from speeches to action. The South African Police Service, the National Prosecuting Authority, and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate must investigate every documented incident.”
Mr Afenyo-Markin made the remarks on Tuesday while delivering a statement on the floor of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament in his capacity as Third Deputy Speaker.
He further demanded the establishment of a Special Committee on the Safety and Protection of ECOWAS Citizens Abroad to monitor incidents in the Sahel and Southern Africa and report to the House quarterly.
Additionally, he called for the transmission of a formal statement from the ECOWAS Parliament to the South African Parliament, the South African government, the African Union Commission, and the African Union Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, demanding the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of all persons involved in xenophobic violence.
Mr Afenyo-Markin also highlighted the role played by African states in ending apartheid in South Africa.
He criticised ECOWAS for failing to fully uphold the 1979 Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, which grants citizens of member states the right to enter, reside, and establish economic activities within the sub-region.
Although mechanisms such as the 90-day visa-free policy and the ECOWAS Travel Certificate exist, he said the continued harassment and extortion of travellers by border officials across the region showed that the protocol was not being fully implemented.
According to him, the lives of Ghanaian tomato traders killed in Burkina Faso could have been protected if the protocol had been strictly enforced.
He also lamented Ghana’s failure to ratify the AU Protocol on Free Movement, despite the country being ranked among the top 10 nations on the African Visa Openness Index and hosting the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Mr Afenyo-Markin stressed the importance of free movement to the success of AfCFTA, stating, “We cannot build a true AfCFTA if people cannot move with their goods.”
He therefore urged the ECOWAS Parliament to pass a resolution on the urgent ratification of the AU Free Movement Protocol, develop a West African Parliamentary Action Plan on Free Movement and Border Governance, and commission a Regional Agricultural Resilience Strategy to reduce coastal states’ dependence on supply chains passing through conflict zones.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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