Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-04-17

The South African Hajj and Umrah Council (SAHUC) has released the accredited list of 2000 names for Hajj 1435.

According to a press release people who are on the list of 2000 will receive a notification via SMS confirming their accreditation.

“Alhamdulillah, yes we have accredited two thousand persons and we basically have given prospective hujjaj the opportunity to accept or reject their accreditation,” Shaheen Essop the President of SAHUC told Radio Islam.

The prospective hujjaj have until 5pm, on Wednesday, 23rd April to confirm their accreditation and 5pm on Saturday  26th April to choose an operator and do the necessary payment of the hajj fees as well.

“So all this is in process now and Alhamdulillah the rollout of hajj certainly has begun in a big swing,” added Essop.

Asked about the criteria utilized to accredit the two thousand names on the list, Essop said: “date and time priority is the criterion that is predominantly used when we basically utilize people who have applied back from 2009 up to mid-March 2012, those are the people that have been accredited in this particular process for first time hujjaj.”

Essop said there is still an extensive waiting list which is in excess of 16,000. “So we look at the waiting list combined for the next three to four years Insha’Allah and we make dua that sooner rather than later we are able to get an increase in the quota.”

Essop reiterated that SAHUC operates on an elimination basis where if prospective hujjaj have not accepted their accreditation by the deadlines set out, the accreditation will be cancelled and rolled down to the next people in the queue.

With an average 40% dropout rate, Essop said that people need to be patient as new lists will be rolled out until the quota is filled.

(Twitter: @Faizie143)