Public Works ‘not informed’ of South Africans’ arrival – De Lille
Public Works Minister Patricia De Lille claims her department was not given enough time to prepare for the arrival of repatriated South Africans.
A group of around 200 people, repatriated from Washington in US on Sunday, were forced to wait on the tarmac at OR Tambo airport for hours without food or water.
They were instructed to wait for the completion of governmental procurement processes, including the acquiring of accommodation.
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De Lille says her department was not informed of the group’s arrival.
"The Department of Public Works must be given 72 hours’ notice because our duty is to allocate sites for the passengers that are arriving, now they did not give us the 72 hours’ notice because it was very short notice.
"Then we had to do the procurement of the hotel and you know with procurement you can't take any short cuts and also when we procure a hotel, the hotel normally needs 24 hours to activate and have the [necessary] staff in."
De Lille says the different government departments are working on a protocal agreement to avoid similar incidents in future.
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