Xolani Koyana, Sakhile Ndlazi, AFP, Reuters and Sapa
TODAY, like yesterday, the Molebatsi family will be awaiting for every flight into OR Tambo International Airport from Nigeria in the hope that daughter and sister Hlubi, 36, will walk through the arrivals gate.
They waved her goodbye last Tuesday as she left for Lagos as part of a South African group attending a Prophet TB Joshua spiritual revival at the Synagogue Church of All Nations.
“The last contact we had with her was Friday,” said her brother Mpho Molebatsi.
President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday informed the nation that 67 South Africans had died and more than 130 been injured when one of the hostels in the church complex collapsed on Friday.
Zuma said five South African tour groups totalling about 300 people were thought to have been in the church complex at the time.
The National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) in Lagos yesterday reported that 70 bodies had been pulled from the rubble and 131 survivors had been found.
Hlubi’s mother and brother, waiting in the arrivals hall all day yesterday for the two flights from Lagos, said they were on the brink of despair.
“All we hear from the church is that they have a list. It’s a list of people that have survived and people in hospital, but they’re still not confirming where my sister is,” said Mpho Molebatsi.
With agony etched on her face, Hlubi’s mother, Morwesi Molebatsi, clutched a photograph of her daughter as she broke down in tears and voiced her disappointment in the South African government.
“I’m definitely disappointed... because the rescue mission always rushes to these events, but why not this time? Why are they waiting for the Nigerian government to give permission first?” she asked.
Mpho Molebatsi believes his sister could be among the dead but has not been identified yet. She is not on the list of people injured and in hospital.
“She left happy, she was going with other South Africans in the hope of receiving a miracle,” said her brother.
The family has been in contact with the Department of International Relations’ helpline.
“They are not giving us much. They are saying we should hold tight, and they would let us know of her whereabouts,” Mpho Molebatsi said.
The Molebatsis and scores of journalists waited for the plane from Lagos scheduled to land at 2.45pm yesterday.
After sitting for more than an hour with her eyes focused on the door, Morwesi Molebatsi appeared to accept that her daughter was not on the flight.
International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told reporters in Parliament yesterday that the government had activated a disaster management centre to assist relatives.
An advance disaster management team of about 10 search and rescue workers and doctors was to fly to Nigeria last night.
Nkoana-Mashabane said her department had bolstered staff at call centres because they were receiving “high volumes” from concerned families requiring information about missing loved ones.
She appealed to affected families to e-mail photographs of relatives or friends who travelled to attend the church.
Nkoana-Mashabane said the consulate in Lagos would assist with the repatriation of bodies, but it was not yet clear when that would happen.
SABC journalist Vuyani Green, whose cousin Thomas Sipho Matsila died in the tragedy, told Nkoana-Mashabane that his family had not received satisfactory assistance from her department’s officials.
Matsila, from Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, was an administrator at Victoria Hospital in Alice.
Green said he had last spoken to Matsila last Thursday.
He said the family had called department officials and the hotline, but to no avail.
“What guarantee can you give us that when we call that number we are going to get co-operation from your officials? When will bereaved families be sent to Nigeria to identify their loved ones?
“Speaking for my family we are in the dark. We don’t know anything,” Green said.
Nkoana-Mashabane said the government did not want to give families incomplete information.
One South African travel agent, who asked not to be named, said some of the survivors flew back from Lagos on Sunday but were too distraught to recount their ordeal.
“It’s a sensitive issue. They
don’t want to talk to anyone about what they saw. They are in shock, they are traumatised,” he said.
A co-ordinator for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, said Joshua’s church was not co-operating with emergency workers.
He said police sniffer dogs had been deployed to help search for bodies and for survivors trapped under rubble.
‘’The dogs will assist in search and rescue faster and help in early conclusion of the operations,’’ Farinloye said.
Toyin Ayinde, Lagos state commissioner for town planning and urban development, told Nigeria’s Channels television that an investigation would look at Joshua’s claim of low-flying aircraft.
Initial indications were that the building came down because extra floors were being added without strengthening the foundations, he said.
Samples would be taken from the site.
Hakeem Bello, spokesman for Fashola, said: “Rescue efforts are still ongoing. When we receive it the governor will make it known.
“Investigations into the collapsed building are also continuing and we will let the world know what really happened.”
Thousands of people from across the world flock to the church with promises of miracles and prophecies from Joshua, a high school dropout referred to as “The Prophet” or “The Man of God”.
Joshua, who claims to have raised the dead and predicted the Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane crash and Boston marathon bombings, has considerable clout in Nigeria and beyond.
But there is increasing anger on social media that he should not be above the law. Joshua has not publicly commented on the deaths.
Since Friday he has posted only a series of Bible verses on his Facebook page and Twitter account.
On Tuesday night, the self-styled prophet tweeted: “Hard times may test me, they cannot destroy me.”