South Africa’s anti-migrant purge raises costs, tensions

Workers at a clothing factory in Newcastle, a manufacturing hub in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on July 31, 2026.

Photo credit: Reuters

African countries already at odds with So­uth Africa may now find themselves with a heavy cost to pay after Pretoria claimed it is owed millions of dollars spent in deporting their people.

It is a revelation that could spark new tensions because Pretoria was already fighting claims to compensate the very people it had labelled as illegal migrants.