‘He was so full of life’ - Family mourns murdered Asla Park teen

KWANONQABA NEWS - The family of the 19-year-old Nhlamulo Sambo was left devastated after he was stabbed to death in Asla Park, KwaNonqaba, on Sunday 31 May.

According to a statement from the Sambo family, Nhlamulo was asleep at a friend’s house when a mob allegedly arrived during the ongoing protest action, which was reportedly held against the presence of illegal foreign nationals in Mossel Bay.

The protest had begun in Asla Park on Friday 29 May, and by the next day, the situation had escalated and resulted in the burning of several homes, leaving hundreds of people displaced.

“We believe Nhlamulo was forcibly removed from the house and attacked. He was stabbed multiple times, resulting in his death,” reads the family’s statement.

The Sambo family claims Nhlamulo was killed because he was mistaken for a foreign national, when he was actually a South African Tsonga man.

In a Facebook post on Monday 1 June, Nhlamulo’s sister, Nonhlanhla, wrote that her brother’s only fault was speaking Xitsonga in a Xhosa community. Nhlamulo was a learner of Hillcrest Secondary in Mossel Bay.

Nonhlanhla told Mossel Bay Advertiser of her brother’s kind nature, saying he was always respectful towards others. “He was so full of life,” she said, and described him as an ambivert with a love of soccer.

The KwaNonqaba Police are investigating a case of murder.

The Southern Cape Police’s spokesperson, Warrant Officer Chris Spies, says the preliminary investigations indicate that Nhlamulo was stabbed during an altercation with another man.

The police had arrived to find him lying in an open field in the New Rest informal settlement in Asla Park, with a stab wound to the chest. The paramedics declared him dead.