Paradise is not so great when you're the only guests and can't get home

There have been mixed fortunes for South Africans trying to find their way home after being stranded abroad from March 27 when a lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The 21-day lockdown and attendant travel restrictions initially saw flights into and out of SA being banned.

However, travel restrictions were relaxed on April 1 to allow foreigners stuck in SA to fly home and South Africans to be repatriated.

There seems to be hope for newly wed SA couple Olivia and Raul de Freitas, who found themselves stuck on a tropical island in the Maldives - and the only guests - when SA went into lockdown.

The were described as the “Last Couple in Paradise ... surrounded by a fleet of staff, who were stranded themselves, trapped in an eternal honeymoon in the Maldives” in an article in the New York Times at the weekend.

“We left Johannesburg on March 22 and reached the Maldives on March 23. Our travel agent provided us with information he had at the time,” Olivia de Freitas told TimesLIVE on Thursday. “I think no-one at the time knew that a lockdown was going to be implemented within that week until the president announced it himself." 

The couple had planned to stay for six days in the Maldives.

After the news that SA would be on lockdown from March 27, De Freitas said they tried to find flights to leave before the lockdown came into effect. “At the time there was just no flight that would be able get back to SA before 12 o'clock before the lockdown started,” she said.

On Sunday, April 5, they received a message to move to another resort where another 20 South Africans were told to congregate as plans were made to fly them back to SA.

“Currently a private charter is being arranged for all the South Africans that are stranded here. There are quite a few that are stranded. So, with the help of the SA consulate [in the Maldives] and the embassy [in Sri Lanka] ... we are hopefully going to be home this week ... hopefully,” said De Freitas.

De Freitas said the their honeymoon had been incredible and was obviously longer than they expected.

She said though they had to pay extra due to the forced extended stay, everyone in the Maldives had been good, kind and had offered much lower rates to make it affordable.

There also seems to be hope for South Africans who found themselves stranded in Egypt.

The group, numbering around 42, got a message from the SA embassy in Egypt on Wednesday evening.

It said the embassy and international relations and co-operation department in Pretoria were planning to enter into negotiations with one airline in SA to assist in their evacuation.

However, this would only be possible if they made a commitment to pay between R7,000 and R10,000 per person.

The embassy staff was at pains to point out that this communication should not be interpreted as if the plan was a “done deal” as negotiations were still at hand.

And there was no good news for Capetonian Allan Huysamen, who has been stuck at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, since March 26 when he was not allowed to catch a flight to Doha, Qatar, and then to Cape Town.

Huysamen and Allister Nunn from Johannesburg were effectively trapped in no-man's land, unable to enter Malaysia because the country was also under lockdown.

“There has been no official movement just yet. We are still doing what we can and keeping communications open where we can,” Huysamen told TimesLIVE on Thursday.

He said there been no news that would allow them to leave the airport. “We are still hanging tight and waiting to hear from the government,” he said.

Huysamen said he was encouraged by international relations and co-operation minister Naledi Pandor's announcement that plans were afoot to arrange flights to SA.