The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling for urgent answers from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) as to why more than 1 000 citizens stranded in neighbouring countries are not getting repatriated back to South Africa.
The Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, announced that South Africans who work or study abroad have been given the green light to return to where they are studying or working, yet South Africans on our borders are being denied entry into their home country. Why is DIRCO and foreign ministries in individual countries not providing feedback to anxious people who have been trying to come home for more than four weeks?
Over 7 000 South Africans having been repatriated to date, most of them from Europe, Asia, the USA and the UK. Very few have been brought home from Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Eswatini. This despite some of the people needing urgent medical attention. At least a month has passed since any significant responses have been received from either DIRCO, the Department of Health, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), or any foreign missions or embassies.
There are at least 60 people stranded in Namibia; 300 in Zimbabwe; 500 in Mozambique; 200 in Eswatini; and 100 in Botswana. We also believe there are in the region of 100 people in Angola. Included in the group is a family whose six-year old twins have been separated from them in Swaziland, and people in need of urgent medical attention in both Mozambique and Eswatini.
The only reason given has been a ‘lack of quarantine facilities’, but no explanation as to whether this is due to the inefficiencies of the DPWI, or because the Department of Health has not approved quarantine sites in Northern KwaZulu-Natal – particularly for those returning from Mozambique.
The DA demands that answers be provided as a matter of urgency. All South Africans deserve to be back in their homes – irrespective of where they are stranded.
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