US terror alert in South Africa ‘unfortunate’: President Ramaphosa

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday said a warning by the US embassy of a possible weekend “terrorist” attack in the country’s financial hub in Johannesburg was “unfortunate.”

“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.

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The US embassy on Wednesday posted the alert on its website and identified the potential target as Sandton, which is commonly referred to as the richest square mile on the African continent -- a collection of high-end shops and lofty office blocks and banks.

It said the attack could occur there on Saturday.

“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 join press conference with the visiting Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez.

He said Pretoria is “working around the clock to verify and to look very closely at this message that came from the United States.”

The embassy said the US government had “received information that terrorists may be planning to conduct an attack targeting large gatherings of people at an unspecified location in the greater Sandton area of Johannesburg.”

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