Mossel Bay – The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) has condemned the brutal killing of 19-year-old Nhlamulo Sambo, a South African, who was stabbed to death during xenophobic violence in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape.
In a statement made available to The Bulrushes late Monday, 1 June 2026, GIWUSA stated that Sambo, from Giyani, Limpopo, was targeted because he spoke Xitsonga and was wrongly assumed to be a foreign national.
The union described the attack on Sunday, 31 May 2026, as part of a wider pattern of rising xenophobia, tribalism, and regionalism that was “poisoning society and tearing the working class apart.”
GIWUSA said the murder was not an isolated incident but the predictable outcome of hate-filled rhetoric, including songs calling for the eviction of Shangaans and campaigns by groups to expel residents from the Western Cape.
The Afrika Mayibuye Movement recently stated that it strongly opposes the presence of “illegal immigrants” in South Africa, saying undocumented migration undermines local stability and resources.
Responding to rising anti-immigrant sentiment, GIWUSA accused the Afrika Mayibuye movement of hypocrisy for denouncing the murder of Sambo while supporting xenophobic attacks.
The union also blasted the anti-immigrant group, Operation Dudula, for dismissing the killing of Sambo as “fake news”.
However, Operation Dudula posted on Facebook: “This murder has nothing to do with March and March and Operation Dudula”.
“It is deeply disappointing that some are now trying to use this young man’s death as a political weapon to smear our movement and silence legitimate concerns about illegal immigration .
“We mourn with the family. But we will not be scapegoated for crimes we did not commit.”
GIWUSA drew parallels to the 2008 xenophobic attacks, when 21 South Africans were killed alongside migrants, warning that the same forces of division are once again driving violence.
Despite government warnings about the unlawful targeting of foreign nations in South Africa, the anti-immigrant group March and March recently announced that “illegal foreigners” must leave the country by the end of this month.
GIWUSA described the so-called “June 30 deadline” — a demand for certain people to leave their homes and workplaces — as “nothing less than a call for ethnic cleansing.”
GIWUSA’s Demands
- Arrest of perpetrators: The union called for the “relentless hunting and immediate arrest” of Sambo’s killers and those who incited the pogroms.
- Swift prosecution: GIWUSA demanded the “severest punishment to the maximum prejudice of the law.”
- United working class front: The union urged organised labour, community groups, and youth movements to mobilise against xenophobia, tribalism, and regionalism.
GIWUSA stated that poverty, unemployment, and housing shortages are the result of corporate greed and neoliberal policies, not the presence of migrants or cultural minorities.
“No foreigner, no ‘outsider,’ has ever taken a factory owner’s profit or cut taxes for the big corporations,” the statement read.
The union extended condolences to Sambo’s family and community, calling his death “a brutal savagery and bloody murder of a young innocent life based on senseless hate and manufactured mass hysteria.”
