South Africa’s department of home affairs spent almost R53-million on deporting illegal immigrants between 1 April and the end of August 2024.
In a response to a question by EFF MP Thapelo Mogale, the department said 19,750 people had been deported in those five months. It cost an average of R2,700 per person.
Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said his department was on track ‘to outperform last year by 50%, when there were 39,627 deportations over 12 months’.