Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, has said Ghana started the Xenophobic attacks with the 1969 Aliens Compliance Order introduced under the administration of former Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia.
According to Kwesi Pratt, Ghana is in no position to claim the high moral ground over the growing hostility towards African migrants in South Africa.
The Veteran Journalist recalled the 1969 Aliens Compliance Order that led to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals, specifically West Africans, from Ghana.
Speaking on Radio Gold on Sunday, July 5, 2026, Kwesi Pratt detailed, “Today, this is happening in South Africa, and I’m sitting in this studio as a Ghanaian. I find it so difficult to mount any moral high ground because we started it”.
“We started the Alien Compliance Order, expelled hundreds of thousands of West Africans from Ghana for the same reasons that the March on March movement is marching in the streets of Johannesburg and other places against other Africans. Nigerians died in their hundreds as a result of the implementation of the Alien Compliance Order. Togolese were maltreated. Some of them were beaten and thrown out of their houses. We did it in 1969 or thereabouts under the Busia administration,” he said.
The veteran journalist, however, acknowledged the concerns surrounding the treatment of migrants in South Africa, but added that Ghanaians should also remember the country’s own history.
Kwesi Pratt also revealed he just returned from a four-day visit to Bela-Bela in Limpopo after arriving through Johannesburg and did not personally encounter any form of harassment.
He stated, “I landed in Johannesburg and drove two and a half hours to Bela-Bela in Limpopo. I didn’t have a scratch on my skin, nobody asked to see my passport, nothing. I stayed in Bela-Bela for four days… not a whimper against anybody. That’s the reality”.
Kwesi Pratt further disclosed some conversations he had with some Ghanaians travelling back to Ghana.
He revealed that one traveller said he preferred to leave South Africa temporarily because he was uncertain about what could happen after June 30 but will return if the situation improves.
Kwesi Pratt recounted, “One of them told me that he’s not sure of what is likely to happen… so he was coming to Ghana to watch the situation, and after two or three weeks, depending on his reading of the situation, he may go back or stay”.
“Then there’s one of them who told me that he’s been to South Africa for eight months. He doesn’t have a job. He’s struggling to find a job… so there’s no point risking his life. He decided to come back home, and even coming back home was difficult because he couldn’t afford his ticket. It was relatives who bought the ticket for him”, he said.
In related news, Julius Malema, a South African opposition leader, has launched a scathing attack on the ongoing anti-immigration protesters in South Africa.
According to Julius Malema, the march against foreign African nationals is clownish and stupid.
He argued that there is no xenophobia in South Africa, adding that it’s just a group of charlatans, extortionists, disruptors, and corrupt individuals who want to extort foreign nationals.
Julius Malema also claimed that the anti-immigration protests are being sponsored by the South African government to distract South Africans from their failures.
Speaking in an interview pm Sky News, Julius Malema stated, “It is clownish – clownish and stupid. There is no xenophobia in South Africa; it’s just a group of charlatans, extortionists, disruptors, corrupt individuals who want to extort foreign nationals.
“It’s not xenophobia; it’s gangsterism sponsored by government. The government is fully informed to distract our people from many major issues. How can an ordinary person be handling a man in front of the police, because it’s a crime on its own,” he said.
According to Julius Malema, records show that a majority of crimes in South Africa, including rape, are committed by South African men and not foreigners natioanls.
Julius Malema added, “Let go and check the cases of rape: who raped South Africa? South African men. Who beats up South Africa’s children? South African men. The majority of the prisoners there are not Zimbabwe, it’s not Ghana, it’s not Nigeria, it’s not TRC, it’s South African men,
“So when you say they are committing crime, why are they not in jail? Because they are not committing any crime, but they become an easy target,” she said.
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