PTI, Johannesburg: An eight-member Christian group from Goa visiting South Africa on a religious seminar but having landed in jail and another 15-member group of Hakki Pikki tribe of traditional healing oil makers from Karnataka were among 336 passengers who left for India on a chartered flight by a Ethiopian Airlines from South Africa on Sunday.
Almost all the passengers were from various southern states with about half of them from Hyderabad alone, said Anju Ranjan, Consul General in Johannesburg, who coordinated and arranged for the stranded Indians to fly back to the Telangana capital via Addis Ababa.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Ranjan arranged repatriation of Indians with assistance from Satguru Travel and India Club, a group of expatriates, who have been undertaking community service work in South Africa for nearly two decades now.
“The group from Goa was here on a religious seminar but had landed in jail as they were unable to pay for their accommodation in a hotel after their extended stay due to the COVID-19 lockdown,” said Ranjan, as she flagged off several buses bedecked with the Tricolours.
“The Consulate General of India with its efforts, was able to get them released and put them on the charter,” she added.
The Hakki Pikki group of 40 people was stuck in South Africa, mostly in Johannesburg and Cape Town, for the past five months and had no means to travel back to India, said Ranjan.
“The Indian High Commission and consulates in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg, with support from the business community, was able to sponsor tickets for 12 of them to travel back to India on the charter flight,” she said, adding the three others managed to buy tickets on their own.
