The department of home affairs has facilitated the voluntary departure of 2,745 foreign nationals over the past two weeks:
- 958 Ghanaians;
- 640 Malawians;
- 583 Mozambicans;
- 296 Zimbabweans; and
- 268 Nigerians.
A “significant proportion” of those processed were in contravention of immigration laws, including cases involving overstays, expired documentation and other forms of noncompliance, said Thulani Mavuso, deputy director-general for operations at the department.
“The process begins when a foreign mission formally requests assistance with the voluntary repatriation of its nationals. The foreign mission provides home affairs with a list of individuals who have expressed a desire to return to their country of origin,” Mavuso said.
The department then checks these names against its own records, including asylum and refugee databases. “This enables the department to establish the individual’s immigration status, determine whether they have overstayed their visa, identify any breaches of immigration requirements, and confirm whether there are any pending applications or processes that may affect their departure.”
Mavuso said in-person interviews were also conducted. “This includes verifying the validity of passports and travel documents, determining whether the individual is travelling with children and, where applicable, ensuring that the necessary parental consent has been obtained, particularly in cases involving mixed-nationality families.
“In cases where travel documents have expired or are otherwise invalid, home affairs requests the relevant embassy to issue an emergency travel document to facilitate the individual’s return.”
We are going because we don’t want to break the law, because we love this country
— Nigerian returnee 'Justin'
Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said 57,784 people were deported in financial 2026, compared with 51,560 the previous year and 39,672 the year before that.
“Just a few weeks after the launch of our new digital partnership with the banks, hundreds of thousands of fraud-prone green IDs have already been replaced at the 178 bank branches that now offer this service,” Schreiber said.
“We are also finalising the regulations and technical design for a cutting-edge digital ID system that will eliminate the paper-based and manual loopholes for identity theft and fraud previously exploited by syndicates and some illegal immigrants.”
In Pretoria, hundreds of Nigerians queued at the country’s high commission, some waiting up to four hours, to register for the voluntary evacuation programme. More than 1,000 Nigerians were registered this week.
Among those in the line on Wednesday was a man who said his name was Justin. “We are going because we don’t want to break the law, because we love this country.”
He said he did not bear any grudges against South Africans for the current anti-immigrant tensions.
“We can’t blame South African citizens because they also have the rights. We have enjoyed your country for this long. South Africans are not selling anything in my country, we can’t just come here and break the law... That’s breaking boundaries.”
It was not an easy decision to go back home, Justin said. “To start from square one at home will not be easy, like my brothers in South Africa would say, ‘nomayini’ [whatever comes]."
He said he had come to South Africa “to get capital to advance myself in life. I was a musician and now a writer, but I lost everything due to looting, and to survive I had to work at a club.”
Frank Onyekwelu, president of an organisation called Nigerian Citizens Association South Africa, said many Nigerians in South Africa felt unsafe and had opted to take advantage of the evacuation programme.
He said many of those returning home had been victims of crime and looting ahead of the June 30 deadline set by South African anti-migrant groups for foreigners to leave. His organisation was compiling data on those who had been victims of looting.
Onyekwelu said part of the problem was dysfunction at the department of home affairs, which made it hard for non-citizens to get their papers. “Some Nigerians entered South Africa on a 30-day visa and did not leave when the visa expired, but some applied for permits but their applications were not responded to.”
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