• Three heads of African governments have decided to absent themselves from the World Economic Forum (WEF) scheduled to begin in South Africa from Wednesday September 4. The three heads of state that have withdrawn their participation from the event are President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, President of DR Congo Felix Tshisekedi and the President of Malawi Peter Mutharika.

    The African leaders withdrew from the three-day event in Capetown citing the xenophobic attacks launched by South Africans against foreigners especially Nigerians.

    Zimbabwean media personality, Josey Mahachie also confirmed that the Zambian National team cancelled its friendly match with South Africa, citing security concerns.

    The World Economic Forum was initiated to tackle issues by focusing on how to scale-up the transformation of regional architecture related to institutions, infrastructure, integration, industrialisation and innovation. There has also been a renewed call to boycott South African goods and companies. 

    Violence broke out last week when a news outlet reported the killing of a Taxi driver at Pretoria CBD. Although, the killing was later discovered not to be perpetrated by a Nigerian, the false news ignited violent mob actions on Nigerian businesses as looting and arson continued unabated.

    Meanwhile, reprisal attacks on South Africa's businesses were also reported in Nigeria.

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