By A Correspondent- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said his government was working hard to encourage the country’s nationals to embrace people from all African countries.

He said this while speaking at the the late former President Robert Mugabe’s funeral at the National Sports Stadium in Harare Saturday.

Ramaphosa thanked his fellow African leaders for the support offered to his government in the wake of the violence targeting foreign nationals and which claimed the lives of 12 people, including 2 Zimbabweans.

He said:

“I would like to state it here and now that South Africans are not xenophobic, South Africans are not against nationals from other countries.

We welcome people from other countries and we are going to work very hard that we encourage and promote social cohesion of the people of South Africa working and living side by side with people from other parts of our continent.

This we shall do because we want to embrace the spirit of unity that President Mugabe worked for throughout his life.”