The Department of Home Affairs has spent almost half a billion on litigation in the past 5 years

21 April 2024

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has spent a mammoth four hundred and twelve million rand (R412 951 709,88) of taxpayer's money on litigation in the past 5 years, almost half a billion rand in litigation. The price tag on the Department's frivolous litigation was revealed in a recent parliamentary question posed to the Minister of Home Affairs by the DA.

The amount spent on litigation ballooned since 2018/19. In the 2018/19 financial year, the litigation cost was around R7 million. In 2023/24 this amount escalated to R117 million, a 1 496% increase. Worryingly, in the latest 2023/24 year, the DHA spent more than double on private law firms instead of using the state attorney.

A leaked memorandum sent by the state attorney to the DHA was scathing of the inundation of lawsuits against the DHA because of its dysfunctional practices. There is also an emergence of a practice within the DHA to defend litigation which has no defence, as opposed to just following the court's instruction.

This is not the only practice which leads to the wasted expenditure. The Department is notorious for ignoring court orders, as was recently seen in the Lawyers for Human Rights case where the Department failed to introduce the necessary legislation, resulting in further litigation fees to deal with their 5-year delay.

To add insult to injury, DA also exposed that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date.

Minister Motsoaledi needs to account to the people of South Africa as to how the DHA can justifiably spend almost half a billion on legal fees when they are unable to keep its system up and running. South Africans are required to spend full days in queues stretching around the block while the Department wastes money on litigation. The DA will be submitting this information to the SIU, which is currently investigating the DHA to bolster its investigation into the maladministration within the Department.

Issued by Angel Khanyile, DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, 21 April 2024