South Africa evacuation: Ablakwa challenges payment claims, says no complaints received in over four months

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has challenged claims that some Ghanaians evacuated from South Africa received less than their approved allowances, saying his ministry had received no complaints in more than four months since the exercise began.

According to the minister, all 1,964 evacuees, including minors, received the GH¢5,000 reintegration package and GH¢500 transportation allowance.

He questioned why allegations of underpayment were emerging through a media organisation months after beneficiaries received their money at the airport.

“For more than four months since the evacuation commenced, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received a single complaint,” he said.

Mr Ablakwa was responding to Joynews’ claim that at least three people contacted from the evacuation list said they received GH¢2,000 instead of the announced GH¢5,500 allowances.

He said evacuees had been informed before leaving South Africa that they would each receive a total of GH¢5,500. That information, he added, was repeated when they arrived in Ghana.

The minister explained that beneficiaries received two envelopes at the airport and were encouraged to open them and verify the amounts. Journalists and bloggers were present, he said, with some capturing evacuees counting their money.

Addressing the Ghanaian community in Ottawa, Canada on an official working visit, the Minister argued that the public nature of the payments, together with the absence of complaints to the ministry, raised questions about the allegations.

“These stories do not add up. And they are calculated at probably discouraging us from always stepping in and rescuing Ghanaians from harm’s way,” Mr Ablakwa said.

Although he acknowledged that he did not personally distribute the money, the minister defended the integrity of the officials involved, including personnel from the ministry’s Finance Bureau, NADMO and National Security.

He expressed confidence that the officials would not exploit vulnerable evacuees who had experienced trauma in another country.

Mr Ablakwa also described the payments as the first instance in which Ghanaians evacuated home had received both a reintegration package and a transportation allowance.

Despite the criticism directed at him, he pledged to continue supporting Ghanaians in distress abroad.

“But I give you one assurance that despite all the vilification, I remain fully committed to the welfare, the protection of the dignity and the rights of Ghanaians. I am not discouraged at all,” he said.