Kiwis in SA beg for help to fly home

The plight of Kiwis stuck in South Africa who are running out of medication, money and accommodation have been laid bare in a letter to the Prime Minister.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Travel (Mfat) is working to see if six Qatar Airways flights from Johannesburg and Doha will be available to 194 New Zealanders stuck there.

On Friday, Wellington man Prakash Mani delivered his letter to Jacinda Ardern asking the Government to urgently organise a mercy or charter flight from South Africa.

Mani’s wife, a New Zealand permanent resident, is trapped there and is about to run out of her breastcancer medication as Kiwis aren’t eligible for the South African health system. She flew there in late January to be with her father who has leukemia, and was scheduled to fly back at the end of March.

As the global pandemic escalated and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters implored travelling Kiwis to get home before it was too late, Mani’s wife rebooked her flight but it was cancelled. Mani said: “She’s running out of medication and there’s no repatriation in sight. I’m really worried about her health.”

Mani wrote to Ardern on behalf of his wife and other stranded Kiwis, including a nurse whose husband is stuck there, leaving her to care for their two young children and juggle her frontline health job.

Another family was more than $10,000 out of pocket as three flights they were booked on to get home had been cancelled, while other Kiwis were almost broke, Mani said.

“There’s some very sad and desperate situations. People can’t come home and they don’t know when they will be able to.”

Mani will release the letter publicly after he’s given the Government time to consider it.

Qatar Airways just announced it would operate six flights between Doha and Johannesburg between May 5 and 16. Mfat is looking into whether they will be available for the 194 Kiwis who’ve registered as wanting to leave.

Meanwhile, it’s continuing to “work hard on options” for repatriation, including a possible Governmentorganised charter flight.

South Africans stuck here are also desperate to get home and in a video beg their government for help. Mike Spencer, of Barberton, said he’d run out of medication for a chronic condition and was broke.