MOSSEL BAY — Anti-migrant violence in Mossel Bay, a coastal town in South Africa's Western Cape province, resulted in the deaths of a South African teenager and two Mozambican nationals. Fifty-five homes were destroyed during the unrest, and approximately 600 Mozambican citizens fled Mossel Bay and returned to Mozambique.
Nhlamulo Sambo, a 19-year-old South African national, died during the unrest. A 19-year-old South African man was stabbed to death on the same night the two Mozambicans were killed. Police have not linked the killing of the South African teenager to the broader anti-migrant unrest. Steve Winston Kamwendo, the stepfather of Nhlamulo Sambo, said, “I understand they killed my son because of a tribal war.”
The two deceased Mozambican nationals were aged 27 and 43. The unrest in Mossel Bay followed a protest organized against foreign nationals on a Friday. Hundreds of residents fled the settlement as the violence occurred.
Local residents reportedly dismantled and occupied homes that had been abandoned after the initial violence. The phrase 'I'm taken, Xhosa' was written on shack doors in the Giyani settlement, indicating that members of the Xhosa ethnic group occupied those dwellings. Approximately 100 foreign nationals from Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe remained in a Mossel Bay community hall under police guard nearly a week after the violence.
Several South African nationals from Limpopo province also sought refuge in the community hall. Protests against undocumented migrants have recently occurred across South Africa. A citizen-led group opposed to irregular migration issued a directive for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa by June 30. Other countries, including Ghana and Mozambique, have repatriated hundreds of citizens from South Africa, while Malawi and Nigeria have announced plans to do the same. Approximately 400 displaced foreign nationals were sheltering in community centers in Kleinmond, Gansbaai, and Stanford on Friday. Approximately 100 local residents visited door-to-door in a Gansbaai informal settlement, instructing foreign nationals to leave by the end of the month.