SOUTH AFRICA has withdrawn a visa issued to Sierra Leone’s former rebel leader Foday Sankoh and ordered him to leave the country following a protest from the Freetown government, South Africa’s embassy in Abidjan said on Monday. “I have just spoken to Pretoria and I have been told Sankoh’s visa has been withdrawn,” a South African embassy spokesman told Reuters in Abidjan where the visa had been issued. “He has since been instructed to depart the country.”