R14.4m of your rates went to the repatriation buses, and Musina carried the rest

Durban and Cape Town ratepayers carried R14.4 million of the repatriation bill this winter. That is the refund Home Affairs paid the two metros for buses and facilities used to move undocumented immigrants to the Beitbridge crossing at Musina while anti-illegal-immigration protests ran across the country between June and August.

eThekwini was reimbursed R10.6 million for transporting people from Durban to Musina. The City of Cape Town received R3.8 million for transport and for facilities erected at Epping.

The figures come from Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber’s written reply to parliamentary questions from MK Party MP Siyabonga Mkhize, who asked what the department had spent on detention and repatriation since the start of January and how many people of each nationality had been arrested and deported. As IOL reported on 28 October, the total repatriation spend for June to August was R341 million.

For residents in Sherwood, in Durban, and around Epping in Cape Town, the protests were not an abstraction. They were neighbours and traders arguing over who may stay, who must go and who pays to send them. The answer Parliament now has is that the metros fronted the buses and Home Affairs paid them back. The money came out of the same municipal pots that fund water, refuse and roads until the refund landed.

Schreiber told the House that 37,942 undocumented foreign nationals were detained and deported between 1 January and 31 August 2026. He said the figure excludes the many more people processed for repatriation. The breakdown by origin was 12,407 Zimbabweans, 10,725 Malawians, 9,548 Mozambicans and 4,435 Lesotho nationals.

On who makes the arrests, Schreiber drew a line. “The Department of Home Affairs can only account for the number of undocumented foreign nationals detained and deported, and not arrests that were conducted by other law enforcement agencies,” he said. SAPS and Home Affairs both make arrests, and people are either sentenced or confirmed for detention and deportation after a court process.

Detention of undocumented immigrants cost R122 million between January and May. Schreiber said the department incurred no deportation expenditure in that same January to May window, which is why the repatriation total is booked to the three winter months.

The biggest single line in the repatriation account is R232 million for buses hired from Atlantic Charter & Tours, a regional and long-distance coach operator. A further R48 million went to establishing and operating the Musina Temporary Repatriation Processing Centre. Chartered flights by Cobra Aviation to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Burundi cost R8.7 million. Accommodation for Home Affairs staff in Durban and Musina came to R9.5 million, and subsistence and travel allowances, venues and printing came to R14.5 million.

One claim is still outstanding. Schreiber said the department has not received the invoice from the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure for setting up and maintaining the Musina centre, so that cost is not yet in the total.

He was also clear that South Africa carries the cost. “Engagements with relevant countries are undertaken, where appropriate, to facilitate the identification, documentation and return of their nationals. Such cooperation does not necessarily provide for the reimbursement of the repatriation expenditure,” he said.

That is the part South Africans watching the winter’s protests will want to sit with. The enforcement happened, the buses ran, the centre at Musina was built and staffed, and the bill sits with the fiscus. The metros were made whole for the transport they provided, but only after they had carried it.

The repatriation numbers also show where the pressure landed. Zimbabweans, Malawians and Mozambicans made up the overwhelming share of the 37,942 deported, which tracks the routes into Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal and the bus corridors to Beitbridge.

What the reply does not answer is what the country got for the R341 million beyond the returns themselves. It records the spend and the destinations. It does not yet record whether the people removed were the ones communities had complained about, or whether the processing centre at Musina will be a permanent line item in future budgets. Public Works has not sent its bill. The next set of parliamentary questions will show whether the winter’s enforcement was a once-off surge or the shape of the department’s spending from here.