KRUGERSORP - The Home Affairs Department has co-coordinated one of the biggest single-day repatriations.
Around 980 Malawians are being processed from Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp. Fourteen buses were used to transport the group on Thursday night.
Home Affairs official Stephen van Neel said the large number is not solely linked to the voluntary repatriation of Malawian nationals in South Africa impacted by the ongoing anti-illegal immigration protests.
READ | Malawi begins voluntary repatriation of its nationals in SA
Instead, he said some are coming either from correctional service, holding cells or even some of the operations and raids and have been brought to Lindela Repatriation Centre.
“They are coming from across the country… This centre serves all nine provinces and that is where we get our people… Everybody who ends up here who is a foreign nationalist, either they have transgressed immigration act, but other times you find that this person has also been criminally charged in one or other matter, ”he said.
Earlier this year, Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber revealed that in April 2025, the Department achieved an annual record of deporting 51,000 illegal immigrants - an 18% increase from the previous year.
Also in April, total deportations since the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) reached over 600,000 individuals
More than 500,000 were intercepted at the border, while 109,344 inland deportations of individuals already within the country.
READ | Mugabe's son deported from South Africa
Van Neel said deportations to neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique are relatively cheaper due to the shorter travel distances.
Malawi, however, remains one of the most expensive destinations, with costs peaking at millions of rands.
“I mean for eight buses that we normally would take on a weekly basis or every second week, we are paying up to R2.5 million rand. So, I mean tonight's exercise would probably be R5 million that we are taking out these thousand people. It is a costly exercise.”