Ridiculous cost of returning home

Flight from Washington DC: R35 000 economy, R51 000 business

SOUTH Africans stranded abroad during the Covid-19 pandemic have to fork out as much as R35000 for a repatriation flight home.

With the country’s borders closed for international travel, desperate citizens struggling to afford the cost of coming home have to rely on donations and goodwill to either stay fed and housed or raise enough funds for a ticket home.

The Department of International Relations and Co-operative Affairs (Dirco) said that about 15 000 South Africans have been repatriated through air and land transportations since the borders were reopened for repatriations.

However, it remains unclear how many citizens remain stranded.

As of today, 13 flights are scheduled to leave the OR Tambo and Cape Town International Airports and return with citizens stranded in various countries.

SAA is operating two flights to and from Washington DC at R35 000 for economy class and R51 000 for business class tickets on July 13 and 16.

The KLM Royal Dutch airline will run six fights between Joburg, Cape Town and Amsterdam at nearly R18 000 per ticket this month.

However, many citizens have raised concerns over the costs of some of the flights, some of which have been cancelled with a long wait for refunds.

Capetonian Tammy-lee Japhta is stuck in the US and running out of funds as she wasn’t able to catch her flight home in April.

She worked in the US as an au pair for a year after finishing her studies and is now unemployed and desperate to return home and start her career.

“The longer I stay here, the more my funds deplete. My funds are already minimal to begin with because au pairs don’t make much money,” Japhta wrote on her Gofundme page.

“I am really dependent on the money I have saved up. This is a really stressful situation.”

Her only option is to buy a seat on a repatriation flight, but the price tag is extremely steep. “With the South African borders being closed, the only way home is by repatriation flights. The prices for those flights are ridiculous.”

Another Western Cape resident said time to raise funds was running out as her visa would expire soon.

“I have only a third of the price of the ticket home. It is crazy how just a few months ago a flight from the US was just over R16 000 and now SAA is charging R35 000 on a one way,” said the 35-year-old woman who did not want to be named.

“A former colleague who is stuck here with his family has to raise close to R200000 for all of them to return. It is insane. Family, friends have been sending money but that is not sustainable.”

A group of SA teachers stranded in Cambodia have created a crowd funding campaign to raise funds to bring them home. The page created by Mare Botha a week ago has raised nearly R7000.

“Many South Africans have been left stranded and jobless, schools closed down and if they are lucky enough some are only earning 25% of their salary, which essentially is not enough to get by in a foreign country with no help from family, relatives or government,” reads the page.

“Due to the financial constraints that have befallen some, they cannot pay for a repatriation flight back home.”

And the nightmare is not over for a group of around 170 South Africans and Zimbabweans who have been trying to come home for nearly four months.

On Thursday their sixth attempt at coming home was delayed yet again after their flight Maple Aviation flight, operated by Air Zimbabwe, was delayed due to technical issues.

The group of about 23 South Africans who were in the Guangzhou Province, China, has been living off donations for food and accommodation after flights for June 17 have been postponed for a number of reasons.

Dirco spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said while the demand for repatriation has decreased, citizens continue to seek assistance.

“The demand has significantly lowered compared to the first few weeks. But with people either losing their jobs as countries prolong the lockdown, there are people asking to be repatriated daily,” he said.

Earlier this week Cemair repatriated 80 South African citizens stranded in Iraq and Jordan for over three months, having to resort to sharing accommodation and relying on charity to survive.

The trip also returned another 33 nationals to Uganda and Sudan.

One of the flight’s organisers, Felix Gosher, said the mission cost R3m, which was raised through donations from ordinary citizens and various companies where stranded citizens worked.

“Given the dire situation many South Africans found themselves in, we partnered with other organisations to raise awareness and funds and had an overwhelming response with 250 individual donations and companies abroad contributing,” Gosher said.