Issued by: The Department of Foreign Affairs
Minister Alfred Nzo has responded positively to a request for assistance from Tanzania, a fellow SADC country, for emergency supplies, following recent flooding and a resultant outbreak of cholera in that country.
A South African Airforce Hercules C130 freighter left Waterkloof Airbase on 21 January 1998 on the first of two flights to deliver much needed emergency building supplies to Tanzania. This material will be used tin the reconstruction of major communication routes recently washed away by torrential floods in that country. The assistance is in response to a request received from the Tanzanian Government and executed as a joint project of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the South African National Defence Force.
Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo has also responded positively to a request for assistance form the Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, by agreeing to supply a consignment of medicines to be used by the OAU to fight a cholera epidemic in Zanzibar, which has already claimed the lives of two thousand people.
This consignment, together with additional building materials and a further supply of medicines, destined for the treatment of displaced persons housed in refugee camps in the Great Lakes region, will also be transported aboard a second flight which is scheduled to leave next week. The total value of the medicines is R1 million.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 22 JANUARY 1998