South Africa on Thursday again apologised to Nigeria but ruled out the payment of compensation to the 125 Nigerians who were refused entry to their country and forcefully repatriated back to Nigeria on 2 May, 2012.
The deportation sparked a diplomatic row, calmed only with a public apology by the South African government to Nigeria over the incident last week Thursday. But in what looked like a retaliatory move, Nigeria deported a total of 131 South Africans who were refused entry into Nigeria.
A Special envoy of the South African President, Jacob Zuma, and South African Minister for Correctional Services, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, told journalists after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that the fact that South Africa had publicly and repeatedly apologised to Nigeria should be enough.
Ms Mapisa-Nqakula stated that ‘the issue of compensation is out of the question. We don’t understand why South Africa will have to compensate. We believe that it is enough that we have come out and apologised. Is it not enough that we have demonstrated our goodwill to the government of Nigeria? It is enough that the President has sent a special Envoy to reiterate his commitment to the bi-national commission with Nigeria and to improve working relationship with Nigeria.’
She added that ‘we are currently conducting an investigation and we have announced in South Africa that there will be consequences for whoever took that decision.’
On the outcome of the meeting with President Jonathan, Ms Mapisa-Nqakula stated that ‘we had a very good discussion with both the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Obviously, as you expect and as you know, we were discussing the events that occurred two weeks ago in South Africa and you are aware by now that South Africa issued a public apology to the people of Nigeria, to the Government of Nigeria and of course in particular, to the President of Nigeria.
‘Also, South Africa reiterates once more its commitment to the bi-national commission that was initiated more than 10 years ago. We have committed ourselves that within the next month, we will be having a bi-national in South Africa led by the Deputy President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Deputy President of the South Africa.
‘On behalf of the people of South Africa, on behalf of our Government and on behalf of our President, it is important to reassure the people of Nigeria that there was no decision of Cabinet to deport big numbers of people from Nigeria. This was not deliberate and Xenophobia is not the policy of government in South Africa and there was no deliberate attack on the integrity on the people of Nigeria. In fact, we have about two million Nigerians living in South Africa. We co-exist and some of them work very closely with us.’
According to Ms Mapisa-Nqakula, ‘it has always been the tradition and practise in South Africa that all decisions related to method of deportation or repatriation are decisions which are taken at the highest level. It has never happened in South Africa that junior officials somewhere at the airport will decide they are going to send these ones back. As I said, it has never happened before. It was not even a decision of the Premier (Governor equivalent in Nigeria) of the Province.’