South Africa Has Not Asked Nigeria To Pay Repatriation Costs – Federal Government Says 

The Federal Government has said it has not received any formal request from South Africa seeking reimbursement for the cost of repatriating Nigerians and other foreign nationals from the country.

The clarification followed reports that South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs had approached Nigeria, Malawi and Ethiopia over part of the R292.77 million spent on accommodating, transporting and returning deportees and voluntary returnees.

South African Home Affairs Director-General, Tommy Makhode, disclosed the development while appearing before the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday, saying the expenditure had risen significantly above the department’s budget for deportations.

However, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said no such demand had been communicated to the Federal Government.

Speaking with newsmen, the ministry’s spokesperson, Kimiebi Ebienfa, dismissed reports that Nigeria had received a reimbursement document.

“It is not true, we have not received any document to that effect,” Ebienfa said.

He also said the South African government had yet to respond to Nigeria’s request for compensation over Nigerians who were allegedly forced to leave the country.

Nigeria’s Consul-General in South Africa, Ninikanwa Okey-Uche, corroborated the position, saying the Nigerian diplomatic mission in Pretoria had not received any reimbursement request from the South African authorities.

The reported demand followed Makhode’s disclosure that the Department of Home Affairs had spent about R292.77 million on repatriation operations, significantly exceeding its R60 million budgetary allocation for deportations.

According to him, the additional expenditure was unforeseen and unavoidable and constituted an unfunded mandate for the department.

Makhode said the department had written to the governments of Malawi, Nigeria and Ethiopia through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation to seek reimbursement.

“We have also written to the governments of Malawi, and of course the embassies of Nigeria and Ethiopia to request for reimbursements of these costs through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, DIRCO,” he said.

“We are expecting responses from those governments.”

He said a significant portion of the expenditure was used to hire buses for transporting migrants, operate temporary repatriation centres and pay overtime to officials involved in the exercise.

Some municipalities and government departments that assisted with the operation were also reportedly seeking reimbursement from the Department of Home Affairs.

Former South-East spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, Denge Josef Onoh, has rejected the reported reimbursement demand, arguing that any such claim should first be subjected to diplomatic and legal scrutiny.

In a statement issued in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Onoh said costs incurred by South African authorities in carrying out immigration-related operations should not automatically be transferred to the governments of other sovereign states.

He urged Nigeria to seek formal clarification from South Africa on the legal and diplomatic basis for any reimbursement request.

Onoh said the matter should also be examined within the framework of international and regional agreements governing the treatment of migrants and foreign nationals.

He called for broader discussions on the treatment of African migrants and Nigerian-owned businesses in South Africa, particularly in cases where individuals or companies have suffered losses during unrest.

The former presidential spokesman also urged Nigeria to work with Malawi, Ethiopia and other affected countries to determine any verifiable economic losses suffered by their nationals and develop a coordinated response.