From the news desk

SAHUC confirms return of 44 Mutamireen

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The South African Hajj and Umarah Council (SAHUC) has confirmed that the number of Umrah passengers who were unable to board a plane from Jeddah to Johannesburg at the weekend stands at forty-four and not sixty as stated in earlier reports.

Although the matter has been resolved and the mutamireen have been confirmed to return home by Friday, questions around why in fact the flight tickets had been cancelled by the Saudi Arabian Airlines have been posed by concerned members of the community.

According to SAHUC President, Shaheen Essop the tour operator of the mutamireen, now identified as a Rasool Travel and Tours, met all the necessary payments and obligations ahead of time, therefore the fault was not with the travel agency.

“I have asked Saudi Airlines for some feedback but their investigation is still ongoing at this point,” Essop continued.

SA COULD SEE AN INCREASE IN ITS HAJJ QUOTA

Meanwhile, renovations in the Saudi Kingdom are set to continue for another eighteen months to two years before the haram is complete. Essop explained that press statements in the Kingdom state that the current temporary tawaf facility will be removed around the Kabah at the end of January.

“Currently, the mataf can accommodate between 20 000 to 40 000 pilgrims per hour making tawaf. Once renovations are completed on all the floors, it will be able to accommodate 100 000 pilgrims per hour, Essop further added.

Essop says that the possibility of an increase in South Africa’s quota could be looming.

“We are hoping that with this improvement of increased capacity, we could possibly get back the five hundred taken off from our quota with an additional increase. That we will only know once the Ministry releases the protocol to South Africa,” Essop said.

Meanwhile, the number of South African registered and awaiting their chance to embark on the journey stands at 26 000 people and growing. VOC (Raeesah Isaacs)


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3 comments

  1. Why two different stories.
    Is KSA Prince the spokesperson of Rasool Travel.
    Get your story right. This one stinks.
    When are the above persons stuck in ISIS land coming back.

  2. There have been many similiar cases whilst we were there. The one major problem is caused by delays at Hajj Terminal of up to 6 hours for Hujjaaj. If you have a connecting flight to Medinah and you are forced to miss the flight due to the delay at Hajj terminal then all your other flights are automatically cancelled. You have to inform Saudi Airlines immediately to reinstate your flights whilst you are at the airport. The same happened to us and we had to request them to re-instate return flights. This is with all airlines. Please inform prospective Hujjaaj to be aware of this. There are a few passengers who after checking in on line for their return journey on Saudi Air found at the airport that their tickets were cancelled and placed on standby. With the help of some courteous Saudi Air staff their tickets were reinstated for them to board. SO please be aware

  3. When u are flying Saudia Airlines you are not taken to Haj terminal but the Main terminal
    This is not Haj season.

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