/ 4 January 2004

SA quake team returns home

Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Saturday welcomed the South African Rescue team at the Johannesburg International Airport as they returned home from Iran, where 30 000 people were killed in the earthquake.

Tshabalala-Msimang congratulated the team on their efforts in recovering the bodies. She thanked the team and told them that South Africans were proud of them.

Iran Deputy Ambassador to South Africa, Touraj Jallai joined the minister in welcoming the team. He said the rescue operation, which involved 29 countries demonstrated true humanity.

He said the operation had brought people from all over the world on a humanitarian level. Jallai also thanked the South African team for the medicines and blankets that they had donated.

Friends and families of the team were also there to welcome them.

The spokesperson for the team, Ian Scher, said the team would have liked to have saved more lives. However, he said it was good to see that the bereaved families were comforted by their presence.

”They felt that the death of their loved ones was not in vain,” Scher said.

He said the operation proved that South Africans were the citizens of the World.

On Saturday, rescuers on Saturday pulled a 97-year-old woman alive from the rubble following the Bam earthquake in Iran. – Sapa