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All clear for pilgrims` departure
2007-12-10 09:05:09
By Angel Navuri
The Muslim would-be pilgrims stranded at the Mwalimu Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam over the past week were expected to leave yesterday evening and today, finally.
An official overseeing their pilgrimage flight to Mecca, Ali Adam, confirmed in an interview with The Guardian at the airport yesterday afternoon that 379 pilgrims would leave at 7pm, followed by the rest this morning.
`According to the latest information we have received from Air Tanzania, some of us are scheduled to leave at 7pm today and the others tomorrow morning,` he said.
Adam said the pilgrims were earlier supposed to leave on December 3 this year and had paid about 3m/- each for the ten days they would spend in Saudi Arabia but that was not to be.
He explained that there were contradicting reports on the causes of delay of their journey `but what is important to us is that we will finally be making the all-important trip to the Holy City`.
Prospective pilgrims expected to leave yesterday and today include those whose journey has been organized by the Muslim Hajj Trust Fund, Hajj Caravan, Zanzibar, Firdaus and Otaiba.
They had been stranded at the airport for about one week and complained yesterday about the national carrier`s failure to take them to Saudi Arabia on time.
Some said the airline`s failure to keep them routinely posted on their travel arrangements during the delay was unfair and unbecoming.
According to one of them, who gave his name as Mohamed Ally, the ATC management maintained dead silence.
``They would not even care to update us on the progress, knowing full well that we were still in Dar es Salaam waiting for the all-important journey,`` he pointed out.
``It is our national airline, all right, but it has problems and must keep its house in order. Its officials have not been straightforward, always planning things but keeping us in the dark,`` noted another, Hassan Omar, as Omar Abdul concurred.
ATC Board Chairman Mustapha Nyang`anyi has already apologised for the delay and said they would do ``everything possible to ensure that the pilgrims have a smooth and fruitful journey``.
The pilgrimage is an annual event and is compulsory for every Muslim with the resources required to make it – at least once in one`s lifetime.
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