Dear Editor,
This morning I took my usual route to work. I took the Koeberg interchange fly off onto the N1 into town and on the fly off I saw a slender white dude, dressed neatly in black, hiking for a lift. My first thought was I do not pick up hitch hikers and as he saw me he begged. I thought this man looks decent and has nothing on him and decided to stop.
He jumped in and off we went. He needed a lift into town to the train station. He was a backpacker tourist from California, his partner and another couple came to SA and were staying in Stellenbosch.
They took a minibus taxi from Cape Town to get home to Stellenbosch, but were robbed at gunpoint in the taxi, where they took all their bags, money, passports etc.
The police say this is an ongoing thing with tourists being robbed as the criminals get away because when the case gets to court the tourists have already left the country and the case get thrown out.
I recommended he use the rapid transport system, trains and busses, where he can and avoid the taxis.
He explained more, including how he was desperately looking for money to buy train tickets to Stellenbosch for him and his friends, where he could get copies of his documents etc. He asked me for my number so that he could come back to reimburse me. I really felt bad for the guy and embarrassed for South Africa.
I gave him the R70 I had in my wallet and said I hope that he comes right and that there was no need to give my money back. I felt embarrassed enough and hoped this would show him what true South Africans are like.
Satish
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.