The Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Committee, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, has criticised the manner in which Ghana's and South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Ministers have been communicating over recent diplomatic concerns.

The MP said it was inappropriate for diplomatic issues between the two countries to be handled through public exchanges on social media.

According to him, the Foreign Affairs Ministers should rely on established diplomatic channels to address disagreements and find solutions rather than engaging in public responses that could further complicate the situation.

It could be recalled that Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister took to social media to comment on the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa, which subsequently attracted a response from South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Minister on the same platform.

Mr Ayeh described the approach as undiplomatic and urged both sides to strengthen communication through official diplomatic processes.

"We seem to be missing the channel for communication, and we seem to be taken away by social media. It is so undiplomatic for me to find two foreign affairs ministers, colleagues, who should be engaging in the back door rather than exchanging words on social media, and I urged that they should get back to the table to use diplomatic means to deal with whatever issue they have with their countries," he said on JoyNews' The Pulse on Tuesday, July 7.

"We may not have some information, or we may have the information that the government of South Africa may not have. The government of South Africa may have some information that we may not have, so the two countries at that level must engage more diplomatically than run into social media," he added.

His comments come amid ongoing discussions over Ghana-South Africa relations following concerns about xenophobic attacks targeting foreign nationals in South Africa and the reported decision by Ghana to decline a proposed visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The MP emphasised that "As things stand now, I don't think that the core fabric of our relationship, the heart of the relationship between Ghana and South Africa, is broken."