The Presidency has dismissed reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa requested a state visit to Ghana, saying no such visit had been planned.
The claims, first published by several Ghanaian media organisations before spreading across West Africa and beyond, alleged that Accra had declined to host Ramaphosa in protest over attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa. The reports were subsequently amplified by media across the continent and internationally, including the BBC.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said there had been no planned visit to Ghana and dismissed suggestions that Ramaphosa had requested one.
Diplomatic correspondence seen by the Mail & Guardian shows that communication between Pretoria and Accra concerned the scheduled South Africa-Ghana Bi-National Commission (BNC), rather than arrangements for a presidential state visit.
The BNC is the principal bilateral mechanism through which South Africa and Ghana review political relations, trade, investment and cooperation. The commission alternates between the two countries.
South Africa hosted the previous BNC in March 2024 during former Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo’s visit. At that meeting, the two countries agreed that Ghana would host the next session in 2026.
Preparations were therefore under way for Ghana to host this year’s commission, with the two governments engaging on logistical arrangements for the scheduled meeting.
In a diplomatic note dated 6 July, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation requested that the BNC, scheduled to take place in Accra from 4 to 7 August, be postponed “to a date to be mutually agreed through diplomatic channels”.
In a separate diplomatic note, also dated 6 July, Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed South Africa’s High Commission in Accra that, “due to state exigencies”, the forthcoming BNC would be postponed and rescheduled for a mutually convenient date. The note makes no reference to a state visit or xenophobia.
Ghana’s Business & Financial Times later reported South Africa’s clarification that there had been no request for a state visit and that communication between the two countries related to preparations for a bilateral engagement rather than a presidential visit.
The episode comes against the backdrop of strained relations between Pretoria and Accra following anti-immigrant violence in parts of South Africa.
Ghana has publicly condemned attacks on foreign nationals and called for accountability following the killing of a Ghanaian citizen in Cape Town. South African authorities have maintained that the killing was linked to alleged extortion-related criminality and not xenophobia.
