South Africa foiled Ghana's bid at the AU to put xenophobic attacks in South Africa on the October mid-year agenda, pushing instead for a continent-wide migration summit.

South Africa has thwarted a bid by Ghana to place xenophobic violence in the country on the agenda for the African Union's Mid-Year Coordination Meeting in October.

Ghana raised the issue on Wednesday during an AU Executive Council meeting of foreign ministers in Addis Ababa. However, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, pushed back against the proposal. He argued that rather than singling out South Africa, the AU should hold a broader discussion on continental migration patterns.

South Africa has been pushing all along for a broader discussion, not only to include more countries but also to discuss what it calls the push-pull factors -- essentially poor political and economic conditions in other countries that drive their people to flee and head for South Africa and other countries.

Daily Maverick was told that the Executive Council had turned down Ghana's proposal, which means that SA will not be under the spotlight at the mid-year meeting in Alamein, Egypt. Ghana has been the most vociferous critic of anti-immigrant protests and xenophobic attacks in SA. It repatriated several hundred of its citizens from SA, and on 25 July announced the start of the next phase to...