26/08/2026
Home Affairs Inspectorate faces R220m overspend after mass deportations
News24 – 26 August 2026
• The Department of Home Affairs’ Inspectorate overspent its annual R180m budget by R220m due to mass repatriations and deportations, exhausting funds by June 2026.
• A request for R292 million in unforeseen expenditure was submitted to National Treasury; R60 million has been made available through the Criminal Assets Recovery Account.
• MPs suggested countries of origin should bear deportation costs.
Five months into the financial year, the Department of Home Affairs’ Inspectorate is R220 million over its annual budget of R180 million, following mass repatriations and deportations in recent months.
The department briefed the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday.
The inspectorate is a specialised enforcement unit established under Section 33 of the Immigration Act of 2002 to investigate immigration violations, enforce compliance, and manage the detection, detention and deportation of illegal foreign nationals.
Against the backdrop of populist anti-immigrant fervour in the country, the department had to deal with 89 936 repatriations between May and August and 9 997 deportations between April and July.
The department’s CFO, Gordon Hollamby, informed the committee that the inspectorate received a budget allocation of R179 961 000 for the 2026/27 financial year, from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. By the end of June 2026, the budget was exhausted.
By 19 August, it had spent R399 729 000, overspending by R219 768 000.
“So, the question becomes, what are we going to do about this?” said Hollamby.
He said he had signed budget overrides to allow invoices to be paid.
He said Cabinet had made R60 million available as Criminal Assets Recovery Account (CARA) funding. CARA is a government account established under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, holding money and property seized and forfeited from criminals.
“A request for unforeseen and unavoidable expenditure in the amount of R292 million was submitted to National Treasury. Should this request be approved, the additional budget will be used to clear the current overspending,” said Hollamby.
“Should the request for unforeseen and unavoidable expenditure not be approved, the department will have to reprioritise funds in its baseline to cover the overspending. Such a reprioritisation process will require virements and forced savings.”
In contrast, the Border Management Authority (BMA) has only expended around 31% of the R11 865 000 requested to deal with March and March’s demands. So far, it has spent only R3 615 100 of this money.
BMA CFO Zamachonco Chonco said:
Following the March on March communication, which basically spoke to the fact that there was a requirement that undocumented foreigners leave the country, the BMA started working to ensure that we are able to ready ourselves for the six-month notice period that has been given.
“As the BMA, we started identifying which ports would be mostly affected, which operational capacity, as well as financial capacity we would require and then coordinate ourselves with the JCPS [Justice, Crime Prevention and Security] cluster and other stakeholders, which would be relevant to us delivering our mandate.”
ANC MP Moleboheng Modise-Mpya, supported by DA MP Adrian Roos, wanted the countries whose citizens were deported or repatriated to foot the inspectorate’s bill – a sentiment the committee has also previously expressed.
“This repatriation process was unforeseen, and indeed, it came at a cost. But, chair, as the ANC, we really don’t believe that South African taxpayers are the ones who are supposed to carry or incur the cost of repatriating illegal foreign nationals, in this case, because it came at a point when South Africans stood up and said they are tired of having a large number of foreign nationals living in their country,” said Modise-Mpya.
Home Affairs director-general Tommy Makhode said Zimbabwe and Mozambique carried costs for deportations to their countries. He said the committee previously asked them to pursue reimbursement, which they are currently doing through diplomatic channels.
Makhode said:
We have written to Dirco [the Department of International Relations and Cooperation], and they are processing that through the normal process.
EFF MP Thapelo Mogale asked whether deportations are continuing, or whether they came to a halt because the department ran out of funds.
Makhode said their work could not stop.
“We have not stopped any operations with regard to deportations.”
Meanwhile, the interministerial committee on migration has indicated that it closed the temporary relocation centre at Musina.
The centre was established on 26 June as an emergency intervention to process undocumented migrants for assisted repatriation. It brought together the Department of Home Affairs, the BMA, the SAPS, health and social development officials, and humanitarian organisations at a single site near the border.
A total of 48 948 foreign nationals were processed at the centre. The majority were Malawian nationals, followed by Zimbabwean and Mozambican nationals.
According to the interministerial committee’s statement, the closure followed a sustained decline in arrivals, with days when no people presented for processing. Operational capacity had already been reduced from 20 000 to approximately 1 500 from 1 August. Furthermore, the Malawian government was no longer facilitating the repatriation of its citizens through the centre.
