Cyril Ramaphosa slams US embassy’s warning of possible “terrorist” attack.

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, expressed sorrow on Thursday for the US embassy’s “unfortunate” decision to issue a warning about a potential weekend “terrorist” attack in the nation without first consulting his administration.

The prospective target was identified as Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg, the nation’s financial center, by the US embassy, which published the alert on its website on Wednesday.

The richest square mile on the African continent is Sandton, a cluster of upscale stores, tall office buildings, and banks.

According to the advisory, the attack may happen 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.

During a news conference with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, he was responding to a query.

Pretoria, according to him, is “working around the clock to authenticate and to properly examine this message that came from the United States,” he said.

The US government “received intelligence that terrorists may be planning to undertake an attack targeting large groups of people at an unidentified site in the greater Sandton area of Johannesburg,” the embassy claimed.

The notice was swiftly disseminated throughout Johannesburg’s WhatsApp groups and on social media.

By referring to the advisory as “part of the US government’s normal communication to its citizens” on Wednesday, Pretoria sought to minimize the warning.

In recent years, there have been several warnings about alleged impending attacks in South Africa, although none have occurred.

Unnamed sources were mentioned by a reputable local news outlet, News24, as saying that the potential targets could have included a gay parade scheduled for Saturday in Sandton and a comedy concert by a well-known South African comic of Jewish heritage.

The procession is returning to Johannesburg after a two-year hiatus owing to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, and the organizers of the event have promised to push forward with it.

The event “has not been directly threatened, nor have we received any communication from outside parties other than what the media assumed via the US embassy’s website,” they said in a statement.

“Gay pride began as a defiant campaign, and we will not be subjected to any threats based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We believe that all lives matter,” they said.

“It is critical for us to occupy the space we intend to occupy on October 29. We must take to the streets and… assert our visibility,” they added.

The News24 website said ongoing peace talks between warring Ethiopian parties in the capital Pretoria had also been “flagged by South Africa’s intelligence agencies as a potential target”.

“We are very concerned about terrorism,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said Thursday.

“Our security organs are paying attention to this matter.”

There is a “elevated danger of terrorist acts in Nigeria, notably in Abuja,” according to a security notice sent by the US embassy in Nigeria on Sunday. US residents are advised to limit their travel.

Since July of last year, South Africa has deployed more than 1,000 troops there to assist in fighting an Islamist insurgency in the neighboring country of Mozambique.

South Africa reacted furiously to what it called “attempts to produce notions of government inefficiency, alarmist impressions, and public anxiety on the basis of a questionable single source” after the United States and Britain issued a similar security advisory in 2016.