HEADLINE:   7 hajj    

PUBLICATION: Cape Argus  

PAGE NUMBER: 7

AUTHOR:     Zubeida Jaffer

DATE:       2001-01-19 06:45:01

Hajj Council warns it will take action  Pilgrims blame agents, airlines for delays

TRAVEL agents and airlines have been threatened after some Muslim pilgrims were seriously inconvenienced.

The President of the South African Hajj and Umra Council (Sahuc), Salie Manie, said this week his organisation would deregister defaulting travel agents, would blacklist airlines and would help pilgrims prosecute those who tried to rip them off. 

"We are going to use our relationship with the Saudi Minister of Hajj to disallow agents from operating if they do not follow our code of conduct," he said. 

The Sahuc is a voluntary organisation formed through the Department of Foreign Affairs and has no statutory weight, but it has this year concluded an agreement with the Saudi Minister of Hajj to deal only with hajj agents registered with it. 

"We initially registered everybody who came forward and agreed to abide by our code of conduct," said Manie. 

"But if agents service pilgrims badly, we will have to deregister them," he said. 

The council was also investigating complaints of pilgrims having to travel by bus from Cape Town to Johannesburg, a journey that was to have been made by air. 

"It is too early for us to say who is at fault, but we will approach Transport Minister Dullah Omar so that he can help us with discussions with the airlines involved. 

"If necessary, we would like to see him withdrew the landing rights of an airline that mistreats our pilgrims," he said. 

Manie, who is also an African National Congress MP, took over the council six months ago, when its founding president, Gora Ebrahim, a Pan Africanist Congress MP, died. 

Nearly 8 000 South Africans will perform the obligatory religious pilgrimage to Mecca this year, and each year another 12 000 perform the umra (a visit that takes place at times other than the hajj). 

Last year accommodation at Mina, one of the crucial religious sites of the hajj, was in short supply and at least 2 000 South Africans were left without any. 

Meanwhile at least 65 pilgrims were last week given their tickets just hours before they were due to depart. 

Ebrahim Fisher, a relative of one of the pilgrims, said Pilgrims International in Athlone had informed the family to collect the tickets on Thursday night for a flight on Saturday. 

"On Thursday, we were told to come on Friday morning, then Friday afternoon, then Friday evening," said Fisher. 

But, he said, the tickets were not issued until 10.30pm. 

Mansoor Mollagee of Pilgrims International blamed an airline and the need to find an alternative. 

"We did our best, and in the end, we got everybody away," he said. 

He said he was also expected to pay up front for accommodation without guarantees, and that the airlines were overbooking. 

"The problem is that hajj is a money-making operation for everybody involved," he said. 

Flywell Travel's Managing Director, Usman Ahmed, blamed unprofessionalism in the industry and traveller ignorance. 

"Few pilgrims have travelled before," he said. 

"They need to make their arrangements directly and not through intermediaries."

Manie accepted that there were no quick solutions, since close to three million people were involved internationally, and they all had to be accommodated so that they could perform the important religious rituals. 

His organisation was in close discussions with Malaysians who had developed an infrastructure that had eased the lives of their pilgrims. 

The Malaysian operation, Tabung Haji, was a successful savings and investment initiative that helped Malaysians prepare for hajj, and sent people with pilgrims to be of service to them and to sort out their problems. 

"We are about to enter into a formal co-operation agreement with the Malaysians to be spelt out later this year," said Manie.