South Africa – In a press release, Al Jama-ah leader, Ganief Hendricks, spoke on many issues including how the Competition Control Board “is failing Muslim pilgrims who must pay exorbitant fees and visa applications”. He made various other allegations against an NGO which he later named as the South African Hajj and Umrah Council (SAHUC).
Amongst the allegations was that SAHUC charges pilgrims just “under R2000 for a visa”. Shaheen Essop, President of SAHUC, was not surprised at the allegations levied against the organisation by Hendricks as he “takes stabs at things he has absolutely no knowledge about”.
“First of all, SAHUC doesn’t get visas. SAHUC gets a quota allocated to the country. Based on a fair and transparent and equitable system of date and time priority we put together a queuing system. If we go back a few years, maybe a decade or so, prior to this application system coming in operators would basically be given quotas. Those quotas would then be sold to the highest bidders.”
As a result, the business people and those who had wealth would go multiple times for Hajj while those who were less fortunate were left out, explained Essop. The system came into place to give everyone an equal opportunity.
The fees involved
In his interview with Salaamedia, Hendricks spoke of the high fees that SAHUC charges once one is accredited. The R1 650 fee that is charged is for various things including for the medical care that pilgrims can receive, explained Essop. Every fee serves a purpose.
“A fee is charged for registration on the system and that is once off. You will probably be in the system for over ten years, so bandwidth costs and other administrative costs are derived from that. Then the R1 650, which is the accreditation fee, is utilised in the repatriation of services back to the pilgrim. Be it at airports in South Africa or at the airports in Madinah or Jeddah and then also through the medical services that SAHUC provides.”
Hendricks also spoke about the medical insurance that is being paid as well. According to Essop, that has nothing to do with the Hajj mission but rather a stipulation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“In the agreements with the Ministry of Hajj and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, countries from around the world who come with Hajj missions must have a medical facility. That medical facility must cater for the primary health care for your pilgrims.”
If one goes to any of the hospitals in Makkah or Medina, they will most likely be treated by someone who doesn’t understand English. The R1 650 gets repatriated back to the pilgrims and as such, there is no need to defend that amount, said Essop.
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The work SAHUC has done
For Hendricks to talk about SAHUC in a press release that is supposed to be about the SONA is “out of line” and “makes no sense”. SAHUC has nothing to do with the state and at the end of the day, Essop is proud of the work SAHUC has done and how it has improved.
“In 2005/06 there were 89 complaints against Hajj operators in the Gauteng region alone. From 2015 to 2019 we had 15 complaints countrywide per annum against Hajj operators. So does that not tell you that something has been done right in order to ensure there has been an upscale in service and the hujjaj have come back very satisfied about the journey of a lifetime.”
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The price of Hajj
Hendricks blamed the Competition Control Board for not doing its job and allowing SAHUC to create a monopoly. Approaching the Competition Commission would do no good because SAHUC doesn’t set the prices for Hajj, explained Essop.
“We need to understand there are static costs in the Kingdom. This year the cost for Hajj is about 6 500 Saudi Riyals. Multiply that by the current exchange rate. Take that and multiply it by 5 and you get close to a value of R40 000. That is static costs that have nothing to do with the operators, nothing to do with SAHUC and have got to do with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For your five days of Hajj, food, tanazul, your visa costs, insurance and various other charges.”
One also has to take into account the airfares. Post Covid, the aviation industry has been severely disrupted. There are less international airlines coming to the country. This means that those who want to come back immediately after Hajj have to pay a premium price for tickets, said Essop.
“We are seeing now, during the Umrah period, prices are changing at a rapid pace. There’s a significant demand and supply situation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both in Makkah and Madinah, and prices are exorbitant. It has nothing to do with people monopolising or manipulating anything.”
For Essop, the allegations made against SAHUC come as a surprise. The organisation met with Hendricks about a year ago and in the meeting outlined the process and the history of SAHUC. The things they have informed him about seems to be forgotten, said Essop and the statements made by him are “unfounded” and should never have been made.
To hear Shaheen Essop’s response on why SAHUC can sign agreements with the Ministry of Hajj, listen to the podcast here
