Members of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament have condemned the recent xenophobic attacks in that country.

The ANC described as “disturbing” and “unacceptable”, the acts of looting, assault of people, destruction of property and even murder in various parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

“These criminal acts are wrongly labelled xenophobia or Afrophobia. No person in the Republic has a right to take the law into their hands because they have a complaint or grievance,” the ANC said in a statement, adding: “We condemn all these barbaric acts and call on all South Africans to unite against patriarchy and sexism.”

Ghana and Nigeria have told their citizens to "avoid travelling to high risk and volatile areas" in South Africa until the situation is brought under control.

Nigerians have begun retaliatory attacks on South African businesses in a number of Nigerian cities, forcing telecommunications giant – MTN – to close all its shops and service centres.