South African authorities have reacted to claims that Nigerians living in or visiting the country are not safe as both countries prepare to square off against each other in the AFCON 2023 semi-finals on Wednesday.
Nigeria’s High Commission in Pretoria, in a statement, said potentially inflammatory online comments were made by a section of South African citizens against Nigerians living in South Africa.
“Most of the comments consist of veiled threats against ‘Nigerians cooking jollof rice’ before the match, and ‘showing pepper to Nigerians if the Bafana Bafana lose to the Super Eagles’, among others,” the advisory warned.
Reacting to the advisory, South Africa’s Head of Public Diplomacy, Clayson Monyela, described the threats as unfortunate.
“This is a very unfortunate & regrettable statement issued by our Nigerian friends. It creates unnecessary alarm & tension,” he wrote on X.
Monyela said both teams have faced each other on many occasions, and there is no record of hooliganism among South Africans against Nigerians.
“SouthAfricans pose no threat to Nigerians. We’ll engage our Nigerian counterparts through diplomatic channels further on this. Totally unnecessary!”
This will be the fourth meeting between Nigeria and South Africa at the AFCON.
In the three previous encounters, the Super Eagles have emerged victors in all the ties. The last time the two teams met in the semi-finals was at AFCON 2000 which the Eagles won 2-0.
