By Aneeqa du Plessis

The South African Hajj and Umrah Council (SAHUC) has made the call for those who are ready to embark on the auspicious journey of Hajj to prepare themselves, as an anticipated increase in the 2 500 quota is expected to be delivered after Ramadhan. This is according to the president of SAHUC, Shaheen Essop who spoke on VOC’s Ramadhan AM show on Monday morning.

Essop said there may only be a short time frame that are allotted for pilgrims to get their packages in order when the announcement of an increase is made.

“The key for this whole procedure is that if you put your name down on the ready-to-go list, you need to ensure that you are financially ready. You can’t tell us you are waiting for monies to be released or you are waiting for leave to be approved. All the provisional information needs to be completed by you as a prospective pilgrim,” explained Essop.

Essop said aspiring pilgrims need to be reminded that their name on the ready-to-go list does not guarantee they will be partaking in Hajj 2023/1444 AH. He said Hujaaj are now required to sift through packages offered by travel operators to determine which is best suited to them, should they be afforded the opportunity to go on Hajj.

“You need to understand that this is purely an exercise that we have put in place in anticipation of an increase in the quota,” said Essop.

The cut off time is 17h00 on Monday (10th April) to be added to the list.

“You need to email your name, surname and reference number through to the SAHUC secretary general {sahucsg@sahuc.org.za} by the end of business hours today to be considered,” stated Essop.

“We are not considering any applications after 17h00 today because our list is already vast in number. We’ve given people from the 8th – 10th April to submit their request to be added to the ready-to-go list,” continued Essop.

SAHUC will only accept applications from those who have applied before and on 31st December 2022. Meanwhile, preference will be given on a date and time priority.

“We will always stick to a date and time priority to ensure we are not prejudicing anyone who has applied earlier than others and this is for the first time hajjis only, who are fully paid [application fee] and we will not entertain repeats because first time hajj far supersedes someone who is fulfilling nafl ibadah (optional act of worship),” added Essop.

VOC