South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday said he was set to speak to United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson after the country got placed on UK’s coronavirus “red list”.
“On the issue of the UK putting us on a red list, I think this is the most unfortunate situation that we have been subjected to,” Ramaphosa told a news conference.
“I’m due to speak to Prime Minister Boris Johnson,” he added.
Following restrictions, travellers arriving from South Africa will face mandatory hotel quarantine upon arrival.
However, Ramaphosa said South Africa was not vengeful over the blacklisting.
“We do not need to retaliate… because the UK is an important trading partner to South Africa, one of the important ones.
We should rather engage, and through our engagement, we hope we will find a solution,” he said, insisting that the decision to impose the travel restrictions was scientifically rather than politically driven.
By Everlyne Bosibori
Comment here