South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday regretted as “unfortunate” the US embassy’s issuing of a warning of a possible weekend “terrorist” attack in the country without consulting his government.
The US embassy on Wednesday posted the alert on its website and identified the potential target as Sandton, a suburb in the country’s financial hub of Johannesburg.
Sandton, a collection of high-end shops and lofty office blocks and banks, is commonly referred to as the richest square mile on the African continent.
The alert said the attack could occur there on Saturday.
“It is quite unfortunate the US issued that type of warning without having any type of discussion with us,” he said during a press conference.
“Any form of alert will come from the government of the republic of South Africa and it is unfortunate that another government should issue such a threat as to send panic amongst our people,” said Ramaphosa.
He was answering a question during a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is visiting the country.
He said Pretoria is “working around the clock to verify and to look very closely at this message that came from the United States”.
