South Africa spent 292.77 million rand, roughly 18 million US dollars, housing and transporting tens of thousands of migrants through its repatriation centres this year. Ordinary people on both sides of the border are now caught in the fallout, as a diplomatic dispute over who pays that bill threatens to complicate the rights and welfare of citizens already displaced by months of anti-immigration unrest.
Nigeria has flatly denied receiving any formal request from South Africa to reimburse those costs. Nigeria’s consul general in South Africa, Ninikanwa Okey-Uche, told the BBC she had received no such communication from the South African government. Nigeria’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, reinforced that position on Wednesday, stating plainly: “we neva receive any request.”
The denial matters because tens of thousands of people, many of them Nigerian nationals, were caught up in South Africa’s escalating anti-immigration crackdown. Their movement, whether forced or voluntary, was shaped by protests that erupted across South Africa in recent months. Organisations including March and Operation Dudula took to the streets demanding that undocumented foreign nationals leave the country, issuing a 30 June deadline and threatening to shut down the country if they did not depart. The pressure was real, and the human consequences were large.
By early August, South Africa’s Home Affairs Department had processed 82,875 foreign nationals through its repatriation centres. More than 80,000 people had either voluntarily left the country or been deported since enforcement operations accelerated. Those figures do not include foreigners who departed before the 30 June deadline or those processed by the Border Management Authority.
Meanwhile, the cost of managing that movement fell almost entirely on South African public institutions, many of which had no budget for it. Home Affairs Director-General Tommy Makhode told the Parliament Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday, August 12, that the scale of this year’s operations had far exceeded the department’s budget allocation for deportations, which stood at around 57 million rand, or 3.54 million US dollars. He characterized the entire operation as an “unfunded mandate,” because repatriations had not been provided for in the ministry’s existing budget. The largest share of spending went toward securing buses and transporting migrants, with additional costs covering temporary repatriation centres and staff overtime.
The financial burden did not stop at the Home Affairs Department. Some municipalities and other government departments that assisted with the operation have since sought reimbursement from Home Affairs, as they too had not anticipated or budgeted for the costs involved. Public resources that might otherwise have served local communities were redirected, without prior planning, to manage a crisis that grew faster than any department had prepared for.
South Africa’s Home Affairs Department told lawmakers it had written to Malawi, Ethiopia, and Nigeria seeking reimbursement through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. “We don also write to govments of Malawi, and of course di embassies of Nigeria and Ethiopia to request for reimbursements of dis costs through di Department of International Relations and Cooperation,” Makhode said, adding that the department expected responses from those governments.
Nigeria’s denial suggests those communications either did not arrive or were not received through the right channels. The gap between what South Africa says it sent and what Nigeria says it received points to a breakdown in diplomatic process that now leaves the financial question unresolved.
The stakes for ordinary citizens are not abstract. In July, Nigeria indicated it was seeking compensation from South Africa for its own citizens who left the country as a result of the protests. The Nigerian foreign ministry said the two governments would discuss the issue “at di highest levels.” Whether those talks produce clarity on both the reimbursement claim and the welfare of displaced Nigerian nationals remains the open question that neither government has yet answered.