Warning that isolating South Africa (SA) could replicate the destructive chaos seen in Zimbabwe when it was ostracised by the West, Political Scientist and conflict resolution expert Dr David Matsanga has urged African Union (AU) leaders to abandon public confrontation in favour of quiet mediation over anti-migrant protests.<\/p>\n
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His comments follow calls from Nigeria and Ghana for the AU to formally confront SA over what they label “Afrophobic” sentiment and anti-migrant demonstrations. Speaking on Rise and Shine, Matsanga argued that demonising the entire nation damages continental unity and ignores the complex socio-economic challenges facing one of Africa’s youngest democracies.<\/p>\n
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Matsanga revealed that high-level diplomatic efforts behind the scenes helped delay the upcoming AU summit in Egypt, warning that an unmediated clash between West African heavyweights and SA would have descended into open hostility on the floor.<\/p>\n
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Endorsing calls from leaders such as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Matsanga stressed that African heads of state must engage President Cyril Ramaphosa directly and privately to address the root causes of local frustration, rather than resorting to public litigation, media threats, and institutional isolation.<\/p>\n
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–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32836,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-40293","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"AU cautioned against public clash with SA over regional anti-migrant row","published_date":"2026-07-22 13:20:14","news_description":"AU cautioned against public clash with SA over regional anti-migrant row","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40293","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\/40293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40294,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40293\/revisions\/40294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}