/ 10 October 2005

SA sends tonnes of aid to quake-hit Pakistan

South Africa is dispatching doctors, medicines and food to earthquake-ravaged Pakistan, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

“Following extensive consultations, Minister [of Foreign Affairs] Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has today approved the dispatch by air of 18 doctors, 10 paramedics and 30 tonnes of aid, including medicines, tents, tinned food and blankets to Pakistan,” a statement said.

A special flight will leave for Pakistan on Tuesday, it said.

Nomfanelo Kota, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Monday that the department does not know of any South Africans who died or were injured in the quake.

“There are none that we know of yet,” she said.

South African NGO Gift of the Givers donated R3-million for relief efforts in earthquake-stricken Pakistan, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday.

President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday conveyed condolences to the leaders of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

As many as 40 000 people are feared dead following the 7,6-magnitude quake that hit Pakistan on Saturday. About 650 were also killed in neighbouring India.

A “whole generation” has been wiped out in the areas most devastated by the quake, the country’s military spokesperson Major General Shaukat Sultan said on Monday, adding that schoolchildren were the worst affected.