Johannesburg – The United States embassy in Pretoria insisted on Wednesday that it had consulted with the South African government before issuing a terror alert on Saturday, this after Pretoria accused it of failing to follow correct channels in dealing with the warning.
Earlier, the South African government said it was displeased with the “disingenuous” way some countries had issued alerts to their nationals in South Africa about possible attacks on upscale venues where these nationals might congregate in South Africa, especially shopping malls, in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Pretoria announced that it had “demarched” the countries which had issued the terror alerts.
The US embassy first issued an alert on Saturday, followed by both the UK and Australian embassies updating their travel alerts to their citizens travelling to South Africa.
A demarche, which involves calling in the ambassadors of the countries concerned to be reprimanded by a government minister or senior government official, is a serious expression of diplomatic protest.
In a statement on Wednesday, South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said the information on which the terror alert had been issued had been “very sketchy… dubious, unsubstantiated and provided by a ‘walk-in’ source based on questionable conclusions.”
It added that “the South African government rejects attempts by foreign countries to influence, manipulate or control our country’s counter terrorism work. We reject attempts to generate perceptions of government ineptude, alarmist impressions and public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source.
“The South African government is fully capable of securing our country, protecting our people and taking care of the safety of foreign citizens on our soil. We expect foreign embassies on our soil to follow the correct channels when communicating matters of such nature.”
However Cindy Harvey, spokesperson for the US embassy, emphasised on Wednesday what she had said on Saturday that “when we receive specific, credible, non-counterable threat information, it is our worldwide policy for U.S. embassies and consulates to share the information. We are cooperating with local authorities, as we do in any investigation into terrorist threats around the world.”
African News Agency