Runway repairs, five countries, eight weeks: home sweet home for 78 stranded South Africans

A South African who was a passenger on a five-country repatriation flight which flew 78 South Africans home, starting in Morocco, has described the dramatic and arduous events that led to their return.

"We are a bunch of 78 South Africans who are really relieved to be home. Now we just go through the next phase, which is much simpler than what we have been through already," James de Wet said.

De Wet was one of 28 South Africans who boarded the flight in Casablanca, Morocco, on Saturday morning before the aircraft made four stops along the route to Johannesburg.

The flight also picked up passengers in Nouakchott (Mauritania), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Pointe-Noire (Congo) before reaching Johannesburg on Sunday.

The South Africans had been in these countries for more than eight weeks following the closure of airspace by foreign governments from late March as a means to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Although De Wet expressed relief about being home, albeit under quarantine in a hotel in Melrose, Johannesburg, he expressed hope that South Africans who were still stranded in other countries could also be brought back home.

"I know there are still people out there. We need to keep working on getting them all back. While it is nice for us be sitting in our hotel rooms under quarantine, there are still people out there, destitute and desperate to get home," De Wet said.

He described how the group in Morocco had all moved to Casablanca a day or two earlier to be closer to the airport.

"On Saturday morning, it all happened. We got to the airport nice and early. We were obviously the only people there."

De Wet said embassy staff were at the airport to meet them and see them on their way home.

However, there were some delays occasioned by repairs to a runway in Burkina Faso. This meant the flight, which was scheduled to leave Morocco at 5.45am, left the country two hours later.

"We were elated when we finally got on to the plane. It took off from Moroccan soil. Not that we were sad to leave Morocco, but we were very pleased to be on our way home," De Wet said.

The plane then made stops in the four other countries before reaching Johannesburg.

After immigration checks, the group boarded buses and was whisked away in a police convoy, "lights flashing, sirens going and through red robots" before reaching their quarantine facility.

De Wet thanked CemAir for undertaking the flight, which he described as a "rescue mission". He also thanked the department of international relations and co-operation for its work in getting the requisite permissions.