Stranded South Africans plead to be brought back home

A group of South Africans who spoke to News24 is pleading to be repatriated from South America – fearing that a lockdown lasting several months will keep them from their home country indefinitely.

They join a queue of South Africans scattered in far-flung places around the world, who are desperate to feel South African soil beneath their feet again.

But another South African has hunkered down in a little piece of paradise and believes he’s “in the safest place in the world, right now!”

Dr Razina Patel and Mahomed Coovadia are in a party of six and make up an estimated 30-odd South Africans who have been stuck in Peru for almost a month.

“Our real concern and fear is that with the number of Covid-19 cases in Peru increasing, the lockdowns will continue for a few more months, and we will get sick here, and be here indefinitely,” Coovadia told News24 this week.

“We have emailed and talked to people in the highest of places. We’ve spoken to Dirco (department of international relations and cooperation), we’ve spoken to the director-general; we’ve emailed Minister [Naledi] Pandor, explaining our plight. We don’t know what else to do,” pleaded Patel.

She said it seemed to them there was a “disconnection” between Dirco authorities in South Africa and the SA embassy in Peru – and the party.

“Every time we speak to people in South Africa, they don’t know what’s going on in Peru. They are meant to be telling us what joint efforts they are taking. But it’s discoordinated (sic), they seem uninterested. They don’t seem to have the enthusiasm, or the will, to get us home,” Patel said.

Coovadia added that they could not understand why Dirco had been unable to repatriate the 30-strong group of South Africans – when many other nations had successfully transported thousands of other nationalities safely back home.

But a countryman, Murray Weiner, told News24 he was holed up happily – and settled in, to wait out the storm.

The man, from Bot River in the Overberg, is now snug in Urubamba, in the “Sacred Valley”, not far from the ancient Machu Piccu historic site.

“I came to Peru about a month-and-a-half ago on an assignment to cook for a private retreat – I’m a chef by trade – in the mountains for 10 days,” he explained.

“Literally, on the last day I was (due to be) here, I was on an aeroplane, about to leave, when the shutdown occurred.

“The lockdown was pretty strict from the onset. I didn’t want to stay in Lima – it was a little bit too crazy there. So I came back to a more historic town up in the mountains, and stayed at a hotel with the people I was working for – along with a good two or three thousand tourists trapped. I stayed there for a week, until conditions started to deteriorate – way more restrictions. The closing of the restaurants, the bar, the hotel – they wanted us to stay in our rooms, which I wasn’t too keen on. So I got hold of a Peruvian friend in Cape Town and found, through his family here in Peru, a really nice little place in the country where I have a little cottage.

“I feel very safe, I’m surrounded by mountains – the conditions are not as severe as in the big cities, but there is a large police and military presence.

“By looking at what’s going on now around the world, I feel that where I am right now seems to be the safest. Even trying to get anywhere else in the world is too risky. I don’t really want to go on an aeroplane, with lots of people, through various airports and other countries to get home.

“So my thought is to wait it out here – probably four-to-six-to-eight weeks.

“I’ve subsequently found a job – the family that owns the cottage has a little health shop and I’ve been coming in every day cooking food which we sell and deliver,” Weiner said.

“I feel this area feels a little bit like being in Franschhoek, Stellenbosch area – it’s got that kind of feel to it. There’s no wine … but the people are friendly … I feel that if I had to sit idle I’d probably go a little bit mad, so coming in and doing some work and offering food has been a fantastic outlet for me.”

He said he didn’t know what it would cost to get out once the lockdown ends.

In the Ivory Coast, Ryan Muller and John D’achada are stuck in Abidjan in Anyama – having been conducting church-based work in the African country.

“We paid SAA/Dirco for a flight home, but from what we can gather, Dirco forgot about us with the other 20 people who were waiting for further confirmation.

“The R14,000 that we paid for our seats has now put us in a very difficult position in paying for food, water, accommodation and Wi-Fi. We have asked our church to raise funds for our flight back and our daily expenses,” Muller said, adding they were running severely short.

According to the Daily Maverick, they were halted from entering neighbouring Ghana where the flight was meant to depart. Dirco was aware of the Abidjan issue and working on finding a solution, the report said.

Meanwhile, a British woman, Chloe Lambert, is stuck in Dubai, but desperate to join her South African husband Ben in his home country. They have both lived in the UAE for the past six years, but her husband, from Umtata in the Eastern Cape, took up a new job in Johannesburg in January. She had been poised to join him, when the global pandemic struck.

“I’m reluctant to go back to the UK as the number of cases there are so high. Both of my parents are also frontline workers – my mum is an accident and emergency nurse and my dad is a police officer. I believe I’ll be putting myself at more risk by going back to the UK. I’m desperate to get to South Africa to be with my husband and try and start our lives together there,” she told News24.

She admitted that in anxious moments “one thinks the worst” and she worried about ever seeing her husband again.

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