By Karima Brown
The government has joined the international community in what has been termed the biggest aid effort in history.
In partnership with the United States non-governmental organisation Airserv, it has sent a cargo plane to Indonesia and the Maldives carrying two choppers and five tons of relief supplies, as well as a mobile water purification plant.
According to Xolani Xundu, spokesperson for Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, the entire operation will cost R8-million and will last for 60 days.
'we set up a 24-hour consular operations room in Pretoria' "The South African government is spending R4-million and Airserv have indicated that they will match this rand for rand," he said on Thursday.
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"South Africa is going to help with the distribution of supplies in Indonesia and the Maldives, as distribution seems to be a great challenge in these two affected countries."
In addition, the South African branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross, together with the government and the public, had been at the forefront of collecting cash donations for victims, Xundu said. "The Red Cross has transferred R2,5-million to its Global Fund so far."
Xundu said that when Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her water and forestry counterpart Buyelwa Sonjica returned from the devastated region, they would brief the government on the long-term relief needs of the affected countries.
Meanwhile, department of foreign affairs official Nomfanelo Kota said that the official number of South African dead stood at 10. Five people - confirmed as having been in the path of the tsunami - were officially missing.
officials had assisted families and helped in whatever way they could The total number of South Africans still unaccounted for in the region was about 700.
Kota said that in the first three days after the tsunami, the operations room at foreign affairs had received 4 200 reports of South Africans thought to be missing.
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