More than 160 South Africans repatriated and thousands still to come: Pandor

Just over 160 South Africans have been repatriated to SA since President Cyril Ramaphosa relaxed restrictions last week to allow South Africans stranded abroad to come back home.

Speaking to eNCA on Monday morning, international relations & co-operation minister Naledi Pandor said her department was trying its best to ensure that it used evacuation efforts by foreign governments, which are evacuating its citizens from SA, to return South Africans home.

“We have got a few people that are back home. We have had repatriation of over 163 citizens back into SA and with the help of SAA and various foreign governments, we are hoping to bring more and more South Africans who wish to come home back home,” Pandor said.

The first group of 16 South Africans who were stranded in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Doha, Qatar, were successfully repatriated to SA last Thursday.

They were placed under quarantine as per the regulations.

Pandor said she was aware of complaints from South Africans who were stranded in remote areas around the world who were unable to get help from SA.

“I ask them to try to contact us. We have established a 24-hour command centre in SA. We found that the national command centre ... we have been able to register more persons who require our assistance,” Pandor said.

Pandor also said she has heard complaints by those repatriated about the poor conditions at the quarantine facility and the fact that they were required to go on quarantine, despite having been in self-isolation overseas.

“A team is going out there to look at what is happening and communicate with the people who are dealing with quarantine,” Pandor said.

She said the government had adopted a practice that South Africans who had been out of the country should be placed on quarantine on return.

Pandor said there were difficulties in areas such as South America to get South Africans home.

“We are hoping those South Africans who will be able to get to Sao Paulo (Brazil), we have a small number there, will be able to come back on an SAA plane.”

She said the department was trying to reach South Africans in other countries in the Americas, and it was quite difficult, because many were distant and many countries were under lockdown.

“It is difficult to have people travel from one country to another within that region, we are trying our best to ensure that we utilise these evacuation efforts by our foreign friends to return South Africans home,” Pandor said.