A representative of Ghanaians evacuated from South Africa following xenophobic attacks, Michael Addo, has rejected claims by the Minority that some returnees were denied portions of the GH¢5,500 support package announced by the government.
Addressing the media on Monday, October 26, Mr Addo insisted that every evacuated Ghanaian received the full package, comprising GH¢5,000 in reintegration assistance and GH¢500 for transportation, on their respective dates of arrival in the country.
He dismissed suggestions that some returnees received only the transportation allowance while others were paid only the reintegration support, describing the allegations as false. “The claims that some people received only the GH¢500 transportation allowance while others received only the GH¢5,000 reintegration allowance are all false,” he said. “We want to state for the record that we all received the package on our respective dates of arrival.”
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Mr Addo went further, alleging that some members of the evacuee group had received calls and coaching to make statements against the government over the support package. He said such attempts had failed to sway the group, insisting that the returnees would not allow their integrity to be compromised for partisan ends. “We are aware that some members of our group have received calls and coaching to speak against the government, but our conscience will not allow us to do so, even if we support the opposition party rather than the government of the day,” he said.
He urged the public to focus on the facts rather than allow partisan interests to influence discussions about the evacuation exercise. “It is only fair that we state the facts and refuse to allow petty politics to make us liars,” he added.
The evacuees’ comments come amid controversy over the government’s expenditure on the evacuation exercise. The government reportedly spent GH¢49,721,786 to evacuate 1,964 Ghanaian nationals from South Africa. The Minority has raised concerns about the total expenditure and alleged loopholes in the accounting of the funds, prompting further scrutiny of the exercise and of the support provided to the returnees.
The dispute reflects a wider political contest over how the evacuation programme, launched in response to xenophobic violence targeting foreign nationals in South Africa, has been managed and accounted for. While government representatives have defended the exercise as a necessary humanitarian intervention, opposition critics have questioned the scale of the spending and demanded greater transparency in how the funds were disburs-
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The intervention of the returnees themselves adds a fresh dimension to the debate, shifting attention from the accounting questions raised by the Minority to the conduct of the political conversation around the exercise. Mr Addo’s claims of coaching suggest that the returnees believe they are being drawn into a partisan fight they would rather avoid, and his appeal for fact-based discussion is a call for the voices of those directly affected to be heard without being filtered through political interests.
For now, the matter remains unresolved, with the Minority yet to respond to the allegations of coaching and the government facing continued pressure to provide a fuller account of the GH¢49.7 million spent on the evacuation. What is clear is that the returnees, having endured the trauma of displacement and the uncertainty of resettlement, now find themselves at the centre of a political argument over the very support meant to help them rebuild their lives.
