“I am very worried and apprehensive about the situation of the Madeiran community in South Africa, which has been hit by a lot of violence, which has grown in recent times and which has caused panic, a panic with good reason, due to the wave of robberies and of kidnappings that have taken place there”. The words are from Paulo Cafôfo, president of PS-Madeira and former Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, about the wave of kidnappings and deaths that have hit Madeiran emigrants in South Africa.
In this sense, Cafôfo leaves “a first word of solidarity for these people who I know love that country very much, love South Africa very much, but who feel this violence and instability that affects their lives and forces them to rethink their presence in that African country”.
He reveals that he has already contacted some of these compatriots, but also Fernando Costa Pereira, the Portuguese ambassador in Pretoria, to obtain more information.
He recalls that, when he traveled to that country, on his last visit, during the Portugal Day Celebrations, where he accompanied the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo Sousa, he had the opportunity to meet with the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, and confronted the same with this situation that affects the Portuguese community, appealing to it to see through the eyes of the government in relation to a community that has resided in that country for several generations, which contributes greatly to its development and its economy.