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The South African Hajj & Umrah Council (SAHUC) said it cannot afford to extend deadlines for South African Hajj pilgrims to make their final choices for the selection of an accredited Hajj travel operator due to the deadlines imposed by Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah Ministry.
This comes after a group of six travel operators (Al Safir, Al Massi Nujoom, Umrah Tours & Nuris Travel, Shafigs Travel, Al Anwar Haji & Umrah and Yasmine’s Travel) took the Hajj body to court after they were declined Hajj accreditation status due to what Sahuc called “non-compliance with procedures”.
Applications
According to Sahuc, the Hajj operator applications were opened in November 2022 to Muslim travel operators from South Africa, to apply for Hajj season 2023.
It said the closing date was 15 December 2022 at 5pm (SA time) with official notices sent to prospective Hajj operators stipulating that no late and incomplete applications would be considered.
Sahuc secretary-general Hassan Choonara said only 19 out of 28 travel operators applied to be accredited Hajj travel operators.
Court action
“Twelve operators either submitted incomplete application documents or submitted their application documents after the stipulated closing date and time. Sahuc informed the 12 operators, in writing, that their applications were unsuccessful.
“On 31 January 2023, six of the 12 travel operators filed an urgent application at the Western Cape High Court for a hearing which was held on Friday 3 February 2023,” Choonara said.
Choonara added that the court issued a graft order stating that Sahuc and the operators had reached an out of court settlement on the matter with an agreement to give all six operators an appeal hearing to state why they should not be excluded from the accreditation list.
Choonara said all six travel operators were granted leave to appeal the Hajj body’s ruling.
Deadlines and Hajj quota
Choonara said Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has imposed strict deadlines for Hajj.
“We cannot afford to extend timelines any further due to deadlines we have in place as per the Ministry of Hajj & Umrah requirements.”
“We have also requested an additional quota and any further delays in timelines would mean that the Ministry of Hajj & Umrah may not consider providing South Africa an increase as we have not yet filled our current quota allocation. Due to court case, we have been put back by two weeks already in release of further accreditation list,” Choonara said.
South Africa has been granted a quota of 2 500 that will be allowed to perform Hajj in 2023 or the Islamic year 1444.
