South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs is grappling with escalating deportation costs and inadequate tracking of undocumented foreign nationals, according to ActionSA’s Lerato Ngobeni. During a recent series of oversight visits, Ngobeni highlighted the “dire” state of affairs within the department.
Ngobeni’s visits concluded at the Lindela Repatriation Centre, where foreign nationals are held before deportation. She praised the facility’s cleanliness but voiced concerns over the financial strain linked to deporting foreign nationals. In an interview on 11 October, Ngobeni said it had cost around R3 million to deport individuals to one West African country in the past year alone. In the 2019/20 financial year, Home Affairs spent R23.3 million on deportations.
Data from the department showed that 86 Nigerians, 3,020 Malawians, and 7,393 Zimbabweans were deported in the 2022/23 financial year. However, despite attempts to gain further clarity on the total costs, Minister Leon Schreiber’s office did not provide additional information.
Ngobeni criticized the department’s failure to keep track of undocumented migrants, warning that South Africa has no clear understanding of who is in the country. She also pointed to the complexities of deporting nationals from countries like Botswana, where the death penalty is in effect, due to South Africa’s constitutional stance against capital punishment.
“We cannot deport certain nationals because our constitution doesn’t support the death penalty,” Ngobeni explained, referencing South Africa’s position on not sending individuals to face execution abroad.
