South Africans have already topped the R10-million target the Red Cross set for aid to tsunami-ravaged Indian Ocean countries, the charity said on Tuesday.
The target was reached in less than a month, and people continued to contribute, the South African Red Cross Society (SARCS) said in a statement.
SARCS secretary general Leslie Mondo said the donations came from all sectors of society.
”Pensioners donated R10 bills and wrote notes to us stating that they wished it could have been more, staff members in companies challenged their colleagues, school children have gathered thousands of coins.”
Government ministers had also personally contributed, Mondo said.
”I don’t think that I will ever see such an outpouring again, but I will never forget it for the rest of my life. It’s phenomenal,” he added.
He said South Africans had also donated R300 000 towards emergency relief for 12 000 people whose homes were destroyed in a huge shack fire in Joe Slovo informal settlement last month.
Globally, more than R6,3-billion has been mobilised in aid for the tsunami victims, the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS) said.
Eighty-five percent of this came from the general public.
The money will be used to set up recovery programmes in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Maldives and East Africa.
The latest human toll is more than 276 000 dead and an estimated 14 500 still missing with nearly 2,3-million people displaced.
Mercy flight lands in Somalia
Meanwhile, an aircraft on a South African mercy flight to tsunami victims in Somalia landed in that country on Tuesday morning after being delayed in Uganda.
Fred Rutter, owner of Aero Trade whose Antonov plane was used, said the aircraft landed at about 8.30am.
”It was a critical landing because the airstrip is gravel and only 1,7km long. You need a pilot with balls like an ox to make this kind of landing,” he said.
The aircraft, packed with aid and medical personnel, was greeted by a happy crowd that included government officials, Rutter said.
The aid includes water-purification tablets, medicine, a protein energy powder, blankets, ground sheets and tents. It will be loaded on to trucks and taken about 200km to Hafun, a fishing village on the north-eastern coastline of Somalia.
The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that 12 000 women and children in the area need help.
The December 26 tsunami destroyed at least half of the homes in the village and people were left without clean water, sanitation and food.
Rutter said the team hopes to make a second mercy flight later this week.
The Gift of the Givers flight was delayed in Uganda on Monday after a refusal for the aircraft to fly over Ethiopia. It is understood that Ethiopia requires clearance from the UN for all aid flights.
However, the problem was solved after negotiations between the South African embassy in Addis Ababa, via the ambassador at the African Union summit in Abuja, Nigeria, and Ethiopian officials also at the meeting.
The aircraft, delayed for about 24 hours, took off from Uganda early on Tuesday. — Sapa