De Doorns station commissioner Supt Desmond van der Westhuizen said however he had had no reports of physical violence against foreigners. He said tensions had been building since last week.

This morning, local residents had prevented foreigners from climbing onto the trucks of farmers coming into the town to collect seasonal workers for the day.

The locals claimed the foreigners — mostly Zimbabweans, but including some Lesotho nationals — were accepting lower wages than locals and robbing them of jobs.

The locals had also demolished a number of shacks rented by the foreigners before police intervened, at one point firing rubber bullets.

The shacks had already been vacated, Van der Westhuizen said.

He said 68 foreigners had over the weekend slept at a municipal storeroom next to the police station following a shebeen fight on Friday night in which Zimbabweans were involved, and rumours that action was to be taken against foreigners.

By this afternoon about 1000 people had gathered at the hall with their meagre possessions.

Officials and councillors from the Breede River municipality, as well as the Western Cape MECs for social development and safety, Ivan Meyer and Lennit Max, were on the scene to assess the situation.

The situation was quiet and police were monitoring the four informal settlements.

Van Der Westhuizen said he was however worried about what was going to happen under cover of night.

He said most Zimbabweans stayed in a settlement named Stofland, and others in Ekuphumleni and Hasie Square, while the Lesotho nationals stayed in a settlement named Maseru.

He said the outbreak of xenophobia was not a one-off incident, but an annual occurrence.

“It’s a thing with a history,” he said. “We must all come on board to solve this problem.”