The Presidency has dismissed reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa requested a state visit to Ghana.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said no such visit had been planned.
The claims were first published by several Ghanaian media organisations before spreading across West Africa and beyond.
They alleged that Ghana had declined to host Ramaphosa in protest over attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa.
The reports were later amplified by media outlets across the continent and internationally, including the BBC.
Magwenya rejected the suggestion that Ramaphosa had requested a state visit.
BNC talks at centre
Diplomatic correspondence seen by the Mail & Guardian shows that communication between Pretoria and Accra was about the South Africa-Ghana Bi-National Commission.
It was not about arrangements for a presidential state visit.
The BNC is the main bilateral platform used by South Africa and Ghana to review political relations, trade, investment and cooperation.
The commission alternates between the two countries.
South Africa hosted the previous BNC in March 2024 during former Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo’s visit.
At that meeting, the two countries agreed that Ghana would host the next session in 2026.
Meeting postponed
Preparations were under way for Ghana to host this year’s commission.
The two governments were engaging in logistical arrangements for the scheduled meeting.
In a diplomatic note dated 6 July, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation requested that the BNC, scheduled for Accra from 4 to 7 August, be postponed.
The department said the meeting should be moved to a date agreed through diplomatic channels.
In a separate note, also dated 6 July, Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told South Africa’s High Commission in Accra that the BNC would be postponed because of “state exigencies”.
The note made no reference to a state visit or xenophobia.
Tensions remain in background
Ghana’s Business & Financial Times later reported South Africa’s clarification that no state visit had been requested.
The episode comes amid strained relations between Pretoria and Accra following anti-immigrant violence in parts of South Africa.
Ghana has condemned attacks on foreign nationals and called for accountability after the killing of a Ghanaian citizen in Cape Town.
South African authorities have maintained that the killing was linked to alleged extortion-related criminality and not xenophobia.