South Africa

GLOBAL PANDEMIC

South Africans in Wuhan to be evacuated amid coronavirus outbreak, say officials

South Africans in Wuhan to be evacuated amid coronavirus outbreak, say officials

South Africa will evacuate more than 100 South Africans from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in China, SA officials have confirmed.

South Africa is not accepting the Chinese government’s assurances that South Africans are safe in Wuhan, the city where the deadly virus erupted in China in November 2019.

Officials told Daily Maverick the details of the evacuation had not been confirmed. They estimate there are 233 South Africans in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province in the centre of China.

Pretoria has been agonising about what to do with these nationals for some time. Last week it announced it was on standby to evacuate its nationals if requested.

Until now Pretoria seems to have accepted the assurances of China’s ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian who said at a press conference in Pretoria a week ago that the South Africans were safe in Wuhan.

He said there were about 3,000 South African students in China of which 165 were in Hubei province. No South Africans had been infected with the virus.

However, the students, like everyone else in China, were subjected to severe restrictions on their movement to prevent the virus spreading. But this was necessary, as China was “in wartime, fighting this epidemic”.

Those countries who were evacuating their nationals, such as the US, Singapore and Canada, had exposed themselves to the risk of spreading the disease further, he said.

So far, he said, only 27 of the millions of foreigners in China had been confirmed as having the virus, and two of whom had died.

“We try our best to defeat and contain the virus within our territory. China has taken the most comprehensive and rigorous measures to prevent and control the epidemic so as to resolutely contain the spread of the disease and defeat the virus within China,” Lin said.

But a combination of factors seem to have changed Pretoria’s mind, including pressure from relatives of some of the South Africans in Hubei, according to the Mail and Guardian. It has been reported that there are 199 South Africans in Wuhan of whom 132 have asked to be evacuated and 13 had chosen not to leave. The remainder had not been traced.

But the South African government has also questioned Beijing’s assurances about the safety of the South Africans. “The Chinese discourage evacuations because they reckon it makes them look bad. It sends a message that they’re not able to manage the crisis.

“SA government would be extremely reckless to fold its arms and do nothing. If South Africans start dying over there the media will be the first to blame government for not doing enough for its citizens.

“Once these people are brought back they’ll be quarantined and observed for a period of time before they’re cleared to go home.”

The Mail and Guardian story suggested the government was investigating an army base in Free State as a possible quarantine centre and reported that the whole operation of evacuation and quarantine had been budgeted to cost some R80-million. DM

This is a developing story, watch out for updates.

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.