Mercy dash amid rioting, chaos
Jacqui Swart is using her pilot friends and contacts in South Africa to get essential supplies to families cut off by the social unrest and looting, writes Aaron Leaman.
When Jacqui Swart put out a call to help her sister cut off by rioting in South Africa, her plea reverberated around the world.
Within days, thousands of dollars had been donated, some anonymously, to help fund flights into South Africa’s KwaZula-Natal, delivering essential supplies to households in the hard-hit province.
Swart, who now calls Hamilton home, trained as a pilot in South Africa, and messaged her pilot friends via social media asking if they could deliver food and urgent supplies to her older sister Miki in Ballito, north of Durban.
Many of the roads across KwaZulu-Natal became blocked off when widespread violence broke out following the jailing of former South African president Jacob Zuma on July 7. In an effort to protect themselves from looters and rioters, communities put up makeshift barricades across roads.
‘‘Last week my sister contacted me saying she only had two days left of food. I initially thought she’d be fine, it’s South Africa being South Africa,’’ Swart said.
‘‘Then a few days later she contacted me to say she’d run out of food, she couldn’t buy petrol, and all the shops had been emptied out. I just thought, this is not happening.’’
The 34-year-old then put up a message on Facebook asking if any pilots in South Africa could help deliver supplies to her sister.
Within two hours she had a couple of pilot friends on standby, ready to leave.
‘‘In the beginning, all I wanted to do was help my sister, but everything escalated pretty quickly.
‘‘In a few days I raised enough money for three flights, delivering about 350kg of food and supplies each flight to households in the area.’’
More than $6000 has been raised by New Zealandbased donors to date, and about $4000 by Australiabased donors. Donations have also been received from the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
In recent days, roads across KwaZulu-Natal have reopened, allowing essential supplies to be delivered via trucks.
About 8 tonnes of food can be delivered by truck for what it would cost to pay for one flight.
‘‘I grew up in KwaZulu-Natal, it’s my home, and my heart bleeds for South Africa. But I can help more people by being here than I could do if I was back home,’’ Swart said.
Kesh Naidoo-Rauf grew up in KwaZulu-Natal and immigrated to New Zealand with her parents and siblings more than 20 years ago. Most of her extended family remain in KwaZulu-Natal and have been cut off by the social unrest.
She recently organised for food and toiletry items to be delivered to about 40 family members spread across seven households, thanks to help from Swart.
‘‘There was no warning that anything bad was going to happen, so my family didn’t have time to stockpile flour or the other basic stuff you need to survive,’’ Naidoo-Rauf said.
‘‘My family in Phoenix and Tongaat are just terrified, they haven’t left their homes. We’re all in a family chat group, and we have real time conversations through the night. We tell them to barricade the doors, and stay away from the windows.’’
Naidoo-Rauf and Swart say it’s difficult to know when the violence will end.
Swart said the South African Government has failed to protect its people. Having been raised in South Africa, Swart said she knows who can be trusted to help deliver food to those in need.
Complicating relief efforts has been restrictions put on food and other supplies due to Covid-19.
‘‘It’s a logistical nightmare ... and the level of violence we’ve seen has even surprised South
Africans,’’ Swart said. ‘‘It’s like nothing I’ve seen in my lifetime, and I’ve seen quite a bit.’’
Despite the bleak news coming out of her home country, Swart is proud of how people around the globe have rallied to support South Africa.
‘‘I’m not a hero. I’m just literally someone who made a phone call and the whole world came to the rescue.
‘‘So far, over 300 people have been fed in 12 different cities.’’
KwaZulu-Natal is Zuma’s home area. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to restore order and deployed 25,000 troops to KwaZuluNatal and the Gauteng province.
More than 200 have died during the outbreak of violence so far.