By Mapaballo Borotho
- Nineteen-year-old Nhlamulo Sambo from Limpopo was stabbed to death in Mossel Bay, with police still investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
- While initial reports linked his death to anti-migrant violence, police say he was killed during a violent altercation and a suspect remains at large.
- His death has sparked national debate around xenophobia, ethnic profiling and mob violence.
Nineteen-year-old Nhlamulo Sambo from Giyani, Limpopo, was brutally stabbed to death in Mossel Bay, Western Cape, over the weekend.
The circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear, with conflicting reports emerging as police continue with their investigations.
Initial reports suggested that Sambo was killed amid anti-migrant violence after allegedly being mistaken for a foreign national because he spoke Xitsonga.
However, Western Cape police have since indicated that investigations are still underway and that the exact circumstances surrounding the incident have not yet been established.
According to Western Cape police spokesperson Warrant Officer Christopher Spies, Sambo was fatally injured during a violent altercation with another man.
Police were called to the scene and found the teenager with a stab wound to the chest.
“He was declared dead by paramedics on the scene. The suspect fled and has not yet been arrested,” said Spies.
“Investigations into his murder are progressing with detectives searching for a known suspect.”
Spies added that detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances that led to the fatal stabbing.
Sambo’s death gained widespread attention on social media after a heartbreaking video surfaced of his mother pleading for assistance to transport his body back to Limpopo for burial.
“My son, who is Tsonga and was born in Limpopo but lived in Mossel Bay, was brutally killed by people who accused him of being a foreigner.
My son was South African. I am unemployed, please help me with money to transport his body so that I can bury him in Limpopo this coming Saturday. I am in pain, I am hurt, please help South Africans,” the distraught mother said through tears in a TikTok video.
Meanwhile, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) has strongly condemned all forms of violence, warning that hatred, vigilantism, mob justice, ethnic profiling and anti-migrant rhetoric can have deadly consequences.
“Today it is a young Xitsonga-speaking South African. Tomorrow it can be anyone whose accent, language, appearance or surname does not fit the mob’s definition of who belongs.
This killing exposes the deadly consequences of irresponsible rhetoric that scapegoats migrants for the deep structural crisis facing South Africa,” said SAFTU spokesperson Newton Masuku.
Masuku argued that South Africa’s social and economic challenges were not created by migrants.
“These conditions were not created by poor migrants selling vegetables on street corners, working on farms, cleaning homes or surviving in informal settlements.
They were created by a political and economic system that has allowed corruption, looting of public resources, illicit financial flows, corporate tax avoidance, tender corruption and the hollowing out of the state,” he said.
He warned that unless the root causes of South Africa’s challenges are addressed, vulnerable communities will continue to become targets during periods of social frustration and economic hardship.
As investigations continue, police are appealing to anyone with information regarding the killing to come forward.
This is a developing story. Follow updates as the story unfolds @Kaya News on X.
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