South Africans have opened their hearts and have donated millions via various private and government initiatives to help tsunami disaster victims in Africa and across the world.
The South African government has promised to contribute more funds and technical expertise, including sending engineers from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to help reconstruction efforts in stricken Asian nations.
Details will be announced after a meeting of international donors on Thursday in Jakarta, Indonesia, officials said.
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel announced on Wednesday that the country will donate a dozen containers of shoes and clothing, seized from smugglers by the South African Revenue Service, to tsunami survivors.
The items will be distributed by the South African Red Cross Society.
There have also been numerous private initiatives to raise funds, including efforts by media outlets and aid groups. The South Africa and England cricket teams organised a raffle after their Test match on Thursday with T-shirts signed by the players as prizes.
Tickets are being sold for R10 and about R60 000 has been raised so far, officials said. The Netcare 911 private emergency service said it has raised R4-million for rescue and relief efforts.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation, together with the Welcome Msomi Gateway arts initiative, has raised just less than R1-million.
Gift of the Givers has already sent aid worth about R6-million to Sri Lanka. It is just one of the charities that South Africans have supported over the past week. A Red Cross account has been set up in Cape Town to receive donations.
Imtiaz Sooliman, national coordinator for Gift of the Givers, said his organisation is also involved in getting aid to Somalia.
“We are planning to send some medicines and water-purification tablets to the victims of the disasters. Two planes carrying the items will leave for Indonesia, another plane for Sri Lanka and another one for Somalia next week after getting confirmation from the Department of Foreign Affairs,” he said on Tuesday.
Other initiatives include a fund-raising campaign by the Independent Newspaper group, one of the country’s main publishing companies, which itself has pledged more than R500 000 for disaster relief.
In an article printed on the front page of The Star, editor Moegsien Williams wrote: “There is no place on Earth prepared for a disaster of this magnitude. The best we can do is to reach out to fellow human beings whose lives have been devastated by the biggest natural disaster in the past 40 years.
“I appeal to our readers — who are well known for their generosity — to join us one more time to assist the people of south-east Asia,” he added.
Ten South Africans dead, 717 unaccounted for
The number of South African fatalities arising from the tsunami has risen to 10, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in Pretoria on Thursday.
The latest death was confirmed when family members identified a victim in a morgue in Thailand.
The number of missing, feared dead, people has now dropped to five, while the number of “unaccounted for” South Africans has decreased to 717.
At least 150 000 people were killed and five million left homeless as a result of the devastating Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami. More than half a million people are thought to be injured and in need of medical care in six countries. The World Health Organisation has warned that the toll could double to 300 000 unless action is taken this week to prevent disease.
Deputy foreign affairs ministers Aziz Pahad and Sue van der Merwe signed a book of condolences on Wednesday at the Indonesian embassy in Pretoria.
“The people of South Africa share your grief and we will do all in our power to assist your country,” the message said. “We wish you to know that you have our friendship and solidarity during this awful time.”
SA delegation to attend Jakarta conference
A South African delegation will be among those attending an international donor conference in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Thursday to discuss the needs of people affected by the disaster.
The team is being led by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her counterpart at the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Buyelwa Sonjica.
An inter-ministerial team has also been set up to coordinate the efforts of officials and NGOs assisting those left stranded by the giant waves that struck countries in south-east Asia and Africa.
Thursday’s conference will also be attended by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.
To date, about $2-billion has been pledged by the international community for affected countries. However, relief efforts are being hampered by the fact that roads, airstrips, bridges and harbours were washed away or damaged by the floods.
South African Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi, who heads the country’s inter-ministerial team, said the government is aware that this destruction is complicating aid efforts.
“Before we send anything we need to know there is a receiving structure at the other end,” he noted on Monday. According to Mufamadi, South Africa has received requests for assistance from Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Africa counts cost of tsunamis
He said Pretoria will work with members of the 13-nation Southern African Development Community to provide aid to African countries affected by the tsunamis.
While both Kenya and Tanzania have reported fatalities, Somalia was by far the hardest hit. About 200 people are said to have been killed in the Horn of Africa state — and more than 50 000 left homeless.
UN appeals for $13-billion
On Wednesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) appealed for about $13-million to assist disaster victims in the country.
A WFP spokesperson in Kenya, Laura Melo, said the agency is currently distributing about 270 tonnes of food to 15 000 Somalis. However, insecurity and damage to infrastructure are preventing the WFP from reaching the majority of those in need.
Somalia has been wracked by factional violence since the country’s government was toppled in 1991. Although a new administration was established in Kenya last year, persistent insecurity has preventing it from returning to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Don’t ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’
The UN’s Annan on Wednesday night pleaded with donor governments to pay in full the billions pledged to the tsunami relief effort with fresh money, and not to “rob Peter to pay Paul” by diverting cash from other crises.
His exhortations come as relief workers struggle to get aid to some of the most severely affected areas. The US’s Powell on Wednesday described the scenes of devastation as worse than anything he had witnessed as a soldier.
Despite the massive relief operation, some areas devastated by the tsunami have still not been reached, while the sheer number of aid groups arriving in Asia has caused coordination problems and created bottlenecks.
As well as welcoming debt relief for the stricken countries and calling for a tsunami early warning centre to be established, the Jakarta conference was expected to urge stronger coordination of relief efforts on the ground.
But aid workers at the forefront of the relief effort expressed frustration on Wednesday at having been excluded from the event.
“We have not been invited to participate,” said an Oxfam spokesperson. “None of the NGOs can get in.”
A spokesperson for Christian Aid said: “One has to ask how much is going to come out of this hastily organised conference. Given that the NGOs are crucial [to delivering aid], we should have been consulted.”
Leaders and ministers from 26 countries are attending the summit, including Powell and the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. Also expected were the prime ministers of China, Wen Jiabao, Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, and Australia, John Howard, whose government on Wednesday became the largest single donor to the disaster fund, pledging Aus$1-billion.
But like Annan, aid agencies are hesitant about the overwhelming amount of aid pledged, and have insisted that all of it should be disbursed.
In an open letter to ministers attending the meeting, Oxfam urged: “Every single pledge must be turned into real aid getting to people on the ground as fast as possible.”
The charity’s director, Barbara Stocking, said: “We must ensure we don’t repeat mistakes of previous humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Liberia and elsewhere.”
“I can assure you that when this is through and done with and we see over the coming weeks exactly what we need to contribute, it will be vastly in excess of what we are spending now,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
It also emerged that US President George Bush, who has pledged $350-million in US aid, has contributed $10 000 from his personal funds, while Powell, following his tour of some of the worst-affected areas in Indonesia, promised the US will send more helicopters, food and water.
The US is also expected to disband its “core group” of nations orchestrating the aid effort, and cede control to the UN.
“I cannot begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave,” Powell, a Vietnam War veteran, said after flying along Sumatra’s coast.
The UN also warned that a resumption of civil wars in three of the stricken countries will scupper aid efforts.
“We have a message to the parties to the conflicts,” said the relief coordinator Jan Egeland, referring to antagonists in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Somalia. “Suspend your conflict and work together with us to help your own people.” – Sapa, IPS, Sapa-AP, Guardian Unlimited Â