Johannesburg - The Minister of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco), Naledi Pandor, has issued a warning to citizens who plan to travel overseas during the festive season as European countries and the US have been gripped by a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pandor said on Monday that South Africans who planned to travel overseas should be cautious as they might become “distressed or even destitute” depending on the restrictions applied in each country.
“Please note that you will be travelling at your own risk to these countries knowing the current circumstances and the uncertainty going forward.
“Please ensure that you are familiar with the immigration and health entry requirements of the country you will visit and South Africa’s entry health requirement during the pandemic. If you have any uncertainty regarding the entry health requirements of the country you will be visiting, then please contact their embassy in SA for assistance," the Minister said during a media media briefing on Monday.
She was giving feedback on the challenges experienced by her department in 2020.
Pandor said Dirco faced numerous challenges at the beginning of the year as the pandemic started spreading and many countries closed their borders.
Many South Africans were stranded in different countries and this required the government to organise repatriation flights. She said this was her department’s biggest challenge of the year.
“From the time the president announced South Africa’s Level 5 lockdown on March 15, 2020, to the time when international travel was again allowed under Level 1, my department, through our consular services, managed to repatriate just over 30 000 South Africans who were stranded from all corners of the world, using over 350 flights. The number excludes tens of thousands who used our land borders,” said Pandor.
She thanked those who worked hard in ensuring stranded citizens returned home safely.
“Allow me to take this opportunity to once more express my gratitude to all the officials who were involved in this process. I know many spent sleepless nights, working seven days a week, trying to bring our fellow citizens back to their loved ones.”
Political Bureau