{"id":39003,"date":"2026-07-07T13:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39003"},"modified":"2026-07-07T13:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:02:11","slug":"sa-police-confirm-death-of-nigerian-man-not-linked-to-anti-migrant-violence","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-police-confirm-death-of-nigerian-man-not-linked-to-anti-migrant-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"SA police confirm death of Nigerian man not linked to anti-migrant violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">South African (SA) police said on Tuesday the death of a Nigerian man in custody late last \u200bmonth had nothing to do with a surge in \u200canti-migrant violence and that he collapsed after being arrested for drug possession.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Nigeria&#8217;s Foreign Ministry alleged on Sunday the man had died \u200bduring an interrogation by SA police two \u200bdays before nationwide rallies against undocumented migrants, threatening unspecified action if \u2060there were more attacks on its citizens.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;The SA \u200bPolice Service strongly rejects attempts to link this incident \u200bto anti-illegal immigrant protests,&#8221; a Police Spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe \u00a0said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Mathe said a police drugs team had arrested the Nigerian at his \u200bapartment in an intelligence-driven operation.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Drugs were found at \u200bthe scene, and the man collapsed while being taken into custody \u200cin \u2060a Pretoria police station, Mathe added.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Paramedics were called and declared him dead, and a police watchdog was notified and will investigate the incident, Mathe said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">SA&#8217;s Foreign \u200bMinistry has said \u200bNigeria&#8217;s government \u2060should send in any evidence it has about the man&#8217;s death but has not \u200bcommented on the specific allegations made by its \u200bNigerian \u2060counterpart.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The anti-migrant protests over the past few months have been mostly peaceful but at times turned violent, with attacks on \u2060foreign \u200bnationals and looting of foreign-owned shops.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Rights \u200bgroups say foreigners are being used as scapegoats for deep-rooted problems like \u200bcrime and unemployment.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38923,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-39003","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"South African (SA) police","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39004,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39003\/revisions\/39004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}