{"id":2143,"date":"2026-07-04T13:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=2143"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:52:11","slug":"south-africa-rejects-nigerias-compensation-request-over-xenophobic-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/south-africa-rejects-nigerias-compensation-request-over-xenophobic-attacks\/politics\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa rejects Nigeria’s compensation request over xenophobic attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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South Africa has rejected Nigeria’s request to compensate citizens who fled the country after renewed xenophobic attacks, saying owners of legally registered property can sell their assets through the normal property market and that the government will not pay for abandoned homes or businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria recently said it was documenting businesses, homes and other investments left behind by its citizens who returned home following attacks targeting foreign nationals. The records are intended to support discussions with South African authorities on possible compensation for those forced to abandon their livelihoods because of security concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a news briefing Friday, South Africa’s Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, dismissed the proposal, saying the government would not compensate people for property they left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There\u2019s no compensation that will come from government,” Ntshavheni said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said owners of legally registered movable and immovable property remain free to dispose of their assets through South Africa’s property market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ntshavheni also rejected any suggestion that structures in informal settlements should qualify for compensation, saying such settlements are illegal under South African law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Squatter camps and informal settlements are never properties because they are illegal in the country,” she said. “So you are already violating our law if you are going to tell us about a shack in some informal settlement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The minister also said authorities would welcome information on locations she alleged were being used as drug dens by Nigerians. She provided no evidence to support the claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ll 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,” Ntshavheni said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to South Africa, Temitope Ajayi, said the Nigerian government had begun documenting losses suffered by citizens who abandoned businesses, homes and other investments after returning home because of renewed attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ajayi said the exercise was intended to facilitate discussions with South African authorities on possible compensation for victims who were forced to leave their investments behind over safety concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African government also announced Friday that it had approved additional measures aimed at preventing the re-establishment of informal settlements after they are demolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dispute comes amid renewed incidents of xenophobic violence targeting African migrants in parts of South Africa, prompting some Nigerians to leave the country over fears for their safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Successive waves of xenophobic attacks have periodically strained relations between Africa’s two largest economies, with Nigerian-owned businesses frequently among those looted or destroyed during outbreaks of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria has repeatedly urged South African authorities to protect its citizens and their investments, while South Africa has condemned xenophobic violence and pledged to hold perpetrators accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa has rejected Nigeria’s request to compensate citizens who fled the country after renewed xenophobic attacks, saying owners of legally registered property can sell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,43,41,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-news","category-current_affairs","category-hot_topics","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2146,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2143\/revisions\/2146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}