SA wants Malawi, Nigeria and Ethiopia to reimburse repatriation costs – Here’s how much was spent
· Citizen
The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed it has written to the governments of Malawi, Nigeria and Ethiopia requesting that they reimburse the repatriation costs for their citizens in South Africa.
In June, several countries started repatriating their citizens from South Africa after anti-illegal immigrant protests flared up again in the country.
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Protests
Organisations including March and March and Operation Dudula took to the streets demanding the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals in the country. The organisations gave undocumented foreign nationals a deadline of 30 June to leave the country, failing which they have threatened a national shutdown.
The protests occurred across the country, as countries raced to remove their citizens from South Africa. According to Home Affairs, as of 6 August 2026, at least 82 875 foreign nationals had been processed at the repatriation centres. The figure excludes those repatriated before 30 June and those processed by the Border Management Authority (BMA).
“You will note that that’s really around the 4th and 5th when we received the majority of foreign nationals from the Musina showgrounds, and then the lowest we processed was around 189, and you can see the numbers keep going down now, and the minister just indicated the latest number is even lower than that 189,” Home Affairs Director-General Tommy Makhode told the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday.
Source: Home Affairs“So once people were then processed, they’ll then proceed straight to the port of entry, in this case at Beitbridge, and therefore will not be taken through the processing centre. So in certain instances you’ll note the BMA would have higher numbers because those will not be counted at the processing centre, and similarly those that will be coming from the city of Cape Town, some of them proceeded because we had officials that were working from there.”
Lindela deportations
The department confirmed that it had deported 44 607 foreign nationals from the Lindela repatriation centre in the previous financial year. Between 20 April and 28 July this year, 16 078 foreign nationals were deported.
Malawians were the majority of those deported in the previous and current financial years, followed by Zimbabweans (13 479 previous vs 4 095 current), Mozambicans (12 354 vs 4 034) and Basotho (3 494 vs 931).
“Obviously, the numbers are changing on a daily basis because this work is currently done on a daily basis,” said Makhode.
Other nationalities deported through Lindela include those from Vietnam, Algeria, Bolivia, Brazil, the UK, Thailand, Slovakia, Paraguay, Liberia, Lebanon, Jordan and Hungary.
Source: Home AffairsThe country’s dedicated immigration courts handled at least 28 737 cases, with Gauteng handling the highest number at 4 973. This was followed by courts in KwaZulu-Natal, then Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape.
“This is quite important in the context of what President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on 7 June that we will be establishing these dedicated courts. At OR Tambo, we’re likely going to end up with a full court. Acsa has provided us with space, and the architects are busy with plans for that area, and then in Lindela, we’re planning to expand that court from one to two dedicated courtrooms so that we’re able to process faster.”
‘Undesirable travellers’
Foreigners who were found to have overstayed their stay in South Africa by 30 days or longer were declared undesirable in terms of section 30 of the Immigration Act, read together with regulation 27(3)(c) of the Immigration Regulations.
There is a one-year ban for overstay of 30 days and a two- to five-year ban for longer.
In the previous year, 63 090 foreign nationals were declared undesirable, compared to 20 340 so far during this current year.
Financial implications of repatriations
The repatriations that the department of Home Affairs undertook were unfunded, meaning they had not been budgeted for.
Makhode confirmed that the department spent R292 million on this repatriation process, with the largest amount spent on the buses that were procured to transport people to repatriation centres.
Source: Home Affairs“We have also written to the government of Malawi and, of course, the embassies of Nigeria and Ethiopia requesting reimbursements of this cost through the department of Dirco, and we are anticipating responses from those governments,” said Makhode.
The department also exceeded its budget on deportations from Lindela.
“The majority of the deportations are to our neighbouring countries where the costs are more,” said Makhode.