South Africa has refused to pay compensation to Nigerians who abandoned businesses and properties during a fresh wave of xenophobic violence, saying the government will not recognise assets held in informal settlements and demanding instead that Nigeria help identify alleged drug operations run by its nationals in the country.
South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, stated the government’s position at a press briefing on Friday, drawing a clear line between legally registered assets and structures built in unregulated settlements, which she described as illegal under South African law.
“There is no compensation that will come from government,” Ntshavheni said. “Those who leave their properties, if they are properly legally registered in the country, they can dispose of the properties in the property market in South Africa, whether it is a movable or immovable property.”
In remarks likely to inflame tensions between Abuja and Pretoria, Ntshavheni turned the discussion toward alleged criminal activity, challenging Nigeria to provide the locations of drug operations she attributed to its nationals.
“We will be interested to know where the drug dens of Nigerians are, so they can show us where they have been holding the drugs so that we can clean the drugs in South Africa quite urgently,” she said.
The rejection came days after Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to South Africa, Temitope Ajayi, announced on Channels Television that the Federal Government had begun documenting businesses, vehicles, and properties left behind by returning Nigerians, with the intention of presenting a formal compensation claim to Pretoria.
“I have asked them before they left to document very accurately those things they were leaving behind, in terms of businesses, in terms of even cars, movable and immovable properties. We can now take it up with the South African government,” Ajayi said.
The Federal Government has evacuated more than 850 Nigerians from South Africa across four batches since the outbreak of fresh xenophobic violence, with the latest group arriving in Lagos on 3 July aboard an Air Peace charter flight.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu said the government remained committed to diplomatic engagement with Pretoria over the crisis.
(The Whistler)