Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi revealed this week in parliament that the government spent more than R76 million on interpretating services for criminal court proceedings involving foreign nationals during the 2024/25 financial year, with Shona accounting for the highest share of the expenditure.
Image: GCIS
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development spent R76.4 million on foreign-language interpreting services in criminal court proceedings across South Africa during the 2024/25 financial year.
The expenditure comes as courts recorded nearly 40,000 new criminal cases involving foreign nationals during the same period.
The figures were disclosed this week by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi in response to parliamentary questions from the African Transformation Movement (ATM).
Responding to ATM MP Vuyo Zungula, Kubayi said the department's Electronic Case Management System showed that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) recorded 1,074 new cases involving foreign nationals in regional courts and 37,967 in district courts during 2024/25.
Kubayi added that the NPA does not maintain an electronic record of foreign nationals who were granted bail and subsequently failed to appear in court.
Kubayi clarified that the nationality of the accused was indicated on the database but, the identification of the nationality was not necessarily an indication they were in the country legally or illegally.
Kubayi further said the database did not record whether the foreign nationals were granted bail and subsequently failed to appear in court.
“The NPA is therefore unable to provide the requested information.”
Kubayi also said the department spent R76,178,462 on interpreting services for non-official languages in criminal proceedings from April 2024 until March 2025.
She was responding to ATM MP Thandiswa Marawu, who enquired about the total amount spent on translation and interpretation services for non-official South African languages for criminal proceedings in courts in the 2024/25 financial year.
According to Kubayi, the courts provide interpreting services only, and the services were rendered for the 12 official South African languages and foreign languages.
“Translation services done in courts are done by in-house interpreters for courts and there is no cost related to it.”
Kubayi said the language that attracted the highest total expenditure nationally is Shona, with a total amount of R8.7m.
Five provinces - Free State, Gauteng, Northern Cape, North West, and Limpopo - record Shona as their main cost driver, while the other provinces have spent over R200,000 each on the language during the past financial year.
The minister told Marawu that her department does not track spending on criminal proceedings according to the immigration status of accused persons.
“Therefore, it is not possible to identify or quantify the costs specifically associated with cases involving illegal immigrants. The expenditure is recorded based on the interpreting services provided rather than the legal status of individuals appearing in court.”
Kubayi said the expenditure costs were captured under foreign language interpreting services, which support proceedings where interpretation is required.
“The records do not distinguish between foreign nationals based on their legal status, as they appear in court on various charges, not only immigration-related cases.”
Meanwhile, 109,735 illegal foreigners were arrested and deported in the past financial year.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said in a reply to MK Party MP Mnqobi Msezane that there has been 6,279 inspections conducted at workplaces during the same period.
Schreiber said a total of 8,180 employers were charged for employing foreign nationals without valid work permits in the past five years.
“Penalties and/or sanctions that are imposed in cases where employers have employed foreign nationals without valid work permits is in terms of section of the Immigration Act, Act 13 of 2002.”
However, the Department of Correctional Services has disclosed that foreign nationals were not deported immediately after their court cases were finalised to serve their sentences in their countries of origins in order to alleviate overcrowding in prison.
Correctional Services Minister Piet Groenewald said South Africa does not have an enabling domestic legislation to regulate and facilitate the transfer of sentenced foreign offenders, including South Africans incarcerated in foreign countries, to serve their sentences in their countries of origin.
Groenewald also said there was no bilateral interstate transfer arrangements through memorandum of understanding or otherwise.
“The Department of Correctional Services is responsible for identifying foreign nationals in its detention facilities and reporting such individuals to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The DHA is responsible for establishing/confirming the nationality of such offenders and initiating the deportation of those whose stay in the Republic of South Africa is illegal or undesirable.”
He added that his department handed over foreign national offenders to the relevant authorities when they were released or placed out on parole.
The prisoners are normally detained at a repatriation centre under control of DHA until deportation.
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