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Tue, Oct 21, 2025

News

Xenophobia flare-up as hundreds of foreign migrant workers evacuated from Addo after murders

Photo by: www.pexels.com
Photo by: www.pexels.com

The Valencia community near the town of Addo in the Eastern Cape remained tense on Tuesday night after three foreign nationals were killed. Hundreds of foreign nationals have been evacuated from the area.

“For many years we have been living in peace,” said Valencia resident Gerald September on Tuesday as he grieved his son Juanne, who was fatally stabbed, allegedly by foreign migrant workers, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

“This year, bad people came with the workers. Now we have decided that we won’t want one of them here anymore,” said September.

Valencia, near Addo, is in the heart of the Sundays River Valley’s citrus district. Every year, thousands of migrant workers, most of them foreign nationals, come to the small town to assist with the citrus harvest.

“People make money when they are here because they are renting hokkies [shacks] and they live in flats and pay rent,” said September. But this year has been different.

“I think bad people came here with the workers,” he said.

“My son was 22. He was an operator at a fruit packhouse. He worked late sometimes, and on Friday he worked late again. He was not someone who went out a lot. Even in the last few months, he was very quiet. He was always at home.

“But on Friday, his brother said he must go out with them. At 10 pm, he wanted to come home. But they convinced him to stay,” said September.

Juanne, his brother, Gerano, and his cousin Shandre Adonis stayed at the tavern, and in the early hours of the morning, a fight broke out. Some community members said it was over a game of pool and that the initial altercation was with a migrant labourer who was not a foreign national.

*This article was first published by Daily Maverick

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