SA has Iraq evacuation plan
Government ready to pluck citizens from country which analysts fear is poised to be caught in middle of bloody war
AMID growing security threats in the Middle East, which analysts fear will soon result in bloody direct combat, the government has announced that it is ready to evacuate South African nationals who wish to get out of Iraq.
The readiness was announced by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) after the US killed Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Major-General Qasem Soleimani on Friday in Baghdad.
The cold-blooded killing has stirred political tensions, with some Middle East news outlets such as Al Jazeera reporting yesterday that Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned “a harsh retaliation is waiting”.
Iran’s state-owned international news channel Press TV reported that hundreds of thousands of people attended the Soleimani’s funeral chanting “Death to America’’ and “Death to Israel”.
There were also reports that armed groups sympathetic to Iran had vowed to fight back, going as far as ordering Iraqi forces to move away from US army bases so that they are not caught up in the crossfire when they strike US bases, which were established in the region in 2003 when America invaded the oil-rich country to topple Saddam Hussein.
The news that Dirco was ready to evacuate South Africans from the region was first made public by department spokesperson Nelson Kgwete in a Facebook post.
In the post, Kgwete said: “Public service announcement: South African citizens caught up in the situation in Iraq and needing assistance must contact Dirco on 012 351 1000. They will be placed in contact with our embassy in Amman, Jordan. South Africa does not have a diplomatic mission in Iraq and we are accredited to that country through Jordan.”
Giving more details, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor’s spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said the exact number of South Africans in Iraq was unknown but maintained that the department would release the figures as soon as they were verified.
Ngqengelele added that South Africa has embassies in 125 countries across the world and part of their responsibilities was to assist South Africans in distress while outside their home country.
“The kind of assistance our offices render vary from one situation to another, including on individual persons. It would be difficult to be specific in terms of time frames. The obligation is on individuals to inform us when they travel abroad.
“Unfortunately not everyone informs us. It isn’t Dirco’s responsibility to keep track of the number of people travelling abroad. Home Affairs does through emigration,” he said.
While there is no official database of South Africans in Iraq and the work that they do, media reports between 2003 and now showed that citizens were in the country working as building contractors and security personnel alongside US and Nato forces.
In recent years, some had been repatriated after being killed by militia groups in the country.
It was not yet clear what plans the country has for South Africans living in Iran should war erupt there.
This was as it appeared that should the tensions between the US and Iran would escalate to direct combat, they would be affected.
Yesterday, US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce that should Iran attack US interests, the US would hit back by attacking 52 sites that they have already identified as critical to the Islamic Republic.
In Iran, the biggest employer of South Africans is MTN Irancell, which is owned by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed group, MTN Group, a South African conglomerate with operations in volatile Afghanistan.
AS thousands of road accident victims are anxiously waiting to be compensated by the cash-strapped Road Accident Fund (RAF) following court orders in their favour, the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, is expected to soon deal with the fund’s inability to pay up.
Hundreds of claimants recently turned to the court where they had obtained an urgent order to attach eight of the RAF’s Absa accounts. The bank was ordered to use the proceeds from the accounts to pay the 346 injured victims.
The RAF in turn headed to court last month, in which it wanted this order lifted, as it said it simply couldn’t afford to pay these claimants, as its outstanding debt was more than R17 billion. The fund said it couldn’t operate without its bank accounts as it is was struggling to stay afloat.
This application was not entertained by the urgent court, which meant that the bank accounts remained attached. But it came to light that the RAF then instructed the bank not to honour the attachment order.
A Western Cape law firm, Simpsons Incorporated, subsequently turned to court on an urgent basis to try and force the RAF and the bank to make the payments. But it emerged that the matter was much more complex, with several lawyers telling the court that they intended to intervene in the application to try and force the RAF to also pay their clients.
One lawyer said several of his clients had no idea how they would pay school fees this month, as they bargained on the payout from the RAF, which is not forthcoming.
Counsel for Simpsons Incorporated said that this was a matter of national importance, because as things now stood, claimants were not being paid although they had court orders in their favour. It was agreed that the parties would now ask Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba for a preferential date for their urgent application to be heard. They said that the issue of non-payment was critical and the court had to assist the public in this regard.
The RAF’s legal department earlier confirmed in court papers that the fund’s liability at this stage towards injured motorists was more than R17bn. The RAF only receives on average about R3.5 billion each month.
The RAF said it intended to launch an application that they be given at least 180 days in which to pay pending claims. It said that these applicants were jumping the gun and it first had to pay those waiting the longest.
“The average claims which are settled and not paid to claimants every month, is R4.3bn, which is way more than the R3.5bn which the applicant receives every month,” it said.
But lawyers acting for the claimants said they wanted the matter resolved as soon as possible.
In the latest application, Kim Ross, of Simpsons Incorporated said there were sufficient funds in the attached bank accounts to pay their clients who had obtained the attachment order. She said there was no lawful excuse for the bank to refuse the payments.
Ross said these people would suffer irreparable harm if they didn’t receive their compensation shortly because most of the clients are indigent and urgently needed the money. These claims are mostly for loss of income and earnings due to their injuries.
Ross said in spite of the court order attaching the bank accounts and forcing the bank to make payment to these people, the RAF instructed the bank not to make the payments.
The RAF’s stance is that although there is a court order in place regarding the attachment of its bank accounts, the order cannot be executed as all interested parties should have been alerted of the order.