The number of South Africans missing after the massive bomb blast in Bali, Indonesia, was fluctuating between 19 and 32, a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official said on Tuesday.
The number was changing as families and friends reported people as missing and others thought to be unaccounted for reported that they were safe and sound, said the official.
Two DFA officials from the embassy in Jakarta had also arrived in Bali to provide consular services to South Africans there. This could involve arranging for the repatriation of any dead or wounded South Africans as well as assisting their families.
Earlier in the day Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad told SABC radio news that the difficulty was that the South Africans involved were in the Indonesian archipelago on holiday and until they contacted next-of-kin or the embassy in Jakarta the department had to presume the worst.
”There are something like 19 to 32 reported South Africans in the area, we have to then presume that, you know, the worse could have happened.” DFA representative Nomfanelo Kota earlier said only two South Africans, Godfrey Fritz from Cape Town and Craig Harty from Secunda in Mpumalanga were officially considered missing. It was thought they were near the Sari Club disco, the epicentre of the blast.
Another South African, Capetonian Morne Viljoen, suffered second degree burn wounds to 40% of his body and was transferred to the Royal Darwin Hospital in Australia. On Wednesday he was undergoing skin transplants and was reportedly in a serious condition.
His father, Dion, said doctors were concerned about Viljoen’s lungs. The organs suffered damage in the blast as well as from the smoke after the explosion.
His parents were to fly to Australia on Wednesday night with the help of the Western Cape premier’s office, SABC radio news reported. Nearly 200 people were killed Saturday night and 300 wounded in the car-bomb attack on the club, one of the most popular night-spots in the resort island.
Indonesian officials have blamed the al-Qaida terrorist network for the massacre. – Sapa