South Africa tells Nigeria it will not pay compensation for abandoned properties
South Africa has firmly rejected Nigeria’s push for compensation over properties left behind during recent anti immigration unrest. Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said plainly that the government will not be making any compensation payments. Her position drew a clear line.
People who legally own registered assets, houses, cars, businesses, are free to sell them through the normal market like anyone else. The government is not responsible for losses tied to people choosing to leave out of fear, and informal or illegally occupied properties do not qualify for any compensation at all.
This comes as Nigeria’s Federal Government continues building its case through diplomatic channels. More than 600 Nigerians have already been evacuated in a series of government arranged flights, with acting High Commissioner Alexander Ajayi confirming that returnees have been instructed to document everything they left behind, shops, stock, cars, houses, before any formal claim moves forward. Ajayi has also pushed back on the idea that all affected Nigerians were undocumented, arguing many were caught in long standing backlogs at South Africa’s Home Office despite having entered the country legally.
Two governments are now working from two very different starting points. Nigeria is treating this as protection of years of accumulated labour. South Africa is treating it as a private property matter with no state obligation attached.
Where these two positions leave the ordinary Nigerian who built a life in South Africa and lost it in a matter of weeks is still an open question neither government has fully answered.