Douglas Jardine (68), a well-known businessman and property owner in Springs, has been stranded in Mumbai for almost six weeks.
He and three friends, two South Africans and an Australian, arrived in India on March 12 for a long-planned holiday during which they visited palaces and forts in the north west of India.
Mumbai was their last stop before their return flight to South Africa, which was booked for March 23.
However, when both India and South Africa closed their borders to flights, the men found themselves stranded on foreign soil.
Doug, who lives in Sandton, is known to Springsites as the former owner of Blue Shirt Bakery, in New Era, and is now the owner of numerous properties in Springs.
Speaking to the Springs Advertiser telephonically, Doug, who seems upbeat despite his situation, says: “The biggest challenge I have is dealing with the devastating effect that the lockdown is having on my business in SA.
“I need to get home to pay my 14 staff and Ekurhuleni bills, as well as dealing with tenants.
“These people are my priority and if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be too worried about being stranded here,” he says, stressing that he is not too worried about his own situation, but worries about the families of his staff.
He says that by the time they arrived in Mumbai, the hotel they were booked to stay at had closed and they found themselves with nowhere to stay.
The group then stumbled upon another South African man, André Wilkens from Cape Town, who is also stranded in Mumbai, who took them to the Panda Backpackers Lodge.
Here the four men, Jardine, Wilkins, Julian Bailey and Mark Getliffe (both from KZN), were able to secure four individual hotel rooms at a cost of approximately R1 000 per person per day.
The men have had a torrid time getting information about when they might be able to return home.
“I have been in contact with the SA Consul General in Mumbai and New Delhi who both told me that I need to deal with the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) who are handling repatriations, but we have received almost no feedback as to what is being done to get us home,” Doug says.
India went into lockdown two days before South Africa and Doug says lockdown in India has been stricter than what South Africa has experienced with only food and medicine on sale.
“You cannot buy cigarettes, clothes or alcohol, but there are vendors who sell fruit on the streets between certain hours and we are able to get food.”
He says he has heard there may be flights allowed to leave India in early June, but says these are primarily repatriation flights and no one seems to know when commercial flights will be permitted.
However, there are indications that South Africa may only open its borders to commercial flights at lockdown level 1 which could be months from now.
“If we do manage to get back soon it will have to be on a repatriation flight, which means will have to forfeit the tickets we have and buy new tickets on these flights.”
He says he believes that one of the problems with getting back to South Africa is the lack of adequate quarantine facilities here.
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“There seems to be a problem with the quarantine facilities in SA because they only seem to be using Johannesburg hotels and ignoring the airports and facilities in Durban and Cape Town.
“Our friend, who was repatriated back to Australia three weeks ago, was flown to Adelaide because the bigger cities are full, so although he was not sent home, at least he was taken back to Australia.
“The problem is, when we will be able to fly,” he asks, adding: “If it was just a delay of one more month it wouldn’t be a huge problem, but the goalposts keeping moving so June may come and then they may extend again indefinitely.”
However, while the situation may seem untenable, Doug maintains a cheery disposition and says: “It certainly isn’t the worse place to be stranded.
“Mumbai has a moderate temperature of between 30 and 32 degree Celsius all year round, so while it is hot and humid it’s hardly unbearable.
“The people of Mumbai are extremely friendly and, while I need to get back to take care of my business interests, I’m not in a dire situation.
“There are about 200 South Africans scattered across India who are in far worse predicaments and are desperate to get home as they have run out of money and cannot afford to be stranded.”
The Addie has asked Dirco for comment and will update the article if any is received.
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