PRETORIA — Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, has rebuked Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa, Femi Fani-Kayode, over his handling of a dispute involving the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
Magwenya urged the Nigerian envoy to engage constructively with South African institutions and respect the country’s constitutional principles. He said Fani-Kayode had wrongly linked Ramaphosa to an issue in which the president had no involvement.
The dispute followed Fani-Kayode’s complaint that footage of his introduction and remarks during a presidential ceremony had been omitted from a livestream. The ambassador questioned Ramaphosa over the matter.
In a public response, Magwenya said he regretted having to address Fani-Kayode through a public platform but felt compelled to correct what he described as a misrepresentation of the president’s role.
“Now that you have falsely referenced the President on a matter he has no involvement in, I’m duty bound to clarify your misrepresentation of facts,” Magwenya wrote.
He said Ramaphosa had neither intervened on the ambassador’s behalf nor had authority to interfere in the public broadcaster’s operations. According to Magwenya, the president had directed Fani-Kayode to Sophie Mokoena as the appropriate person to raise his concerns with.
Magwenya also said Fani-Kayode had declined to speak with Mokoena, who, he argued, could have clarified the issue. He encouraged the ambassador to meet with the SABC and establish a “mutually beneficial, respectful and professional relationship.”
“The SABC is a public broadcaster. The President carries no legal or political mandate to interfere with its operations or intervene in its editorial processes,” Magwenya said.
He described Fani-Kayode’s response to what he called a minor operational matter as “grossly inappropriate” and urged him to engage constructively with South African society and its constitutional principles.
Fani-Kayode said the South African Presidency had deliberately excluded Nigeria’s delegation from the livestream of a ceremony in Pretoria, alleging that his introduction and speech were omitted while those of ambassadors from 14 other countries were broadcast.
In a statement posted on his official X account on Friday, Fani-Kayode said the ceremony took place at the South African Presidential Guest House, where he presented his letters of credence to Ramaphosa.
He said the event, attended by ambassadors from 15 countries, was livestreamed by the presidency and watched by viewers in Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere. Nigeria, he alleged, was the only country whose ambassador’s introduction and remarks were excluded.
