SAA crew to be quarantined following repatriation duties to high risk countries
South African Airways was on Friday to start an operation to charter flights for various governments to repatriate foreign nationals from South Africa, starting with German citizens.
On Sunday, the German embassy announced an agreement had been reached with SAA to repatriate German tourists, workers, and students from South Africa this week.
On Thursday, the joint SAA Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs), Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana, said that following the short notice of the 21-day lockdown, many foreign passengers were unable to amend their travel plans to return to their home countries before it started.
“Subsequent to the announcement and the start of the lockdown, representatives of several governments have engaged with the joint BRPs of SAA to consider having the airline provide the safe passage of their citizens to their respective home countries,” the BRPs said.
The engagements required the consideration and approval of the government to implement given the lockdown regulations that were amended by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Wednesday.
The first of the chartered flights will depart on Friday, transporting German citizens from Joburg to Munich and Cape Town to Frankfurt.
SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali told The Star the carrier would use the Wuhan repatriation mission as a reference point for staff capability and precautionary safety measures.
He said that foreign governments would pay for the repatriation of their citizens.
Tlali said that, like the Wuhan repatriation crew, the flight crew on the chartered flights to high-risk coronavirus countries would be placed in self-quarantine for 14 days on their return to South Africa.
Negotiations were ongoing with other governments for the repatriation of their citizens.
However, Tlali confirmed that Germany, Brazil, and Belgium were the first repatriation operation countries.
“As matters stand, we are going to operate no further than 90 flights.
“The Germans will have quite a substantial number of passengers who wish to be repatriated and tomorrow (Friday) as a start, we are operating two to Germany,” he said.
In other news – Has Cici given Birth? – Picture
We are not sure if we should congratulate local singer Cici Twala already, the picture she shared might not 100 percent guarantee that she has given birth, although it looks so.
The social media streets are going buck-wild about Cici‘s latest picture on Instagram, whereby she can be seen rocking a tracksuit, with a flat tummy – has our home-girl given birth already? continue reading
Source: IOL
