I went on a trip to South Africa for my usual business in that country on October 11, 2016 and went through an ordeal I would like to share with others.
On the said date, I saw some South Africans, Nigerians, Ghanaians and Congolese in and around the Oliver Thambo Airport in Johannesburg doing one thing or another.
I spoke to a Ghanaian named Prince at the Airport, enquiring about a ticket for my friend to return to Ghana after the trip. My friend had booked a one-way ticket.
He told a Congolese, who approached me that he wanted to help get the ticket.
Alaine, as I was told he is called, took an amount of 3000 Rands from me under the pretense of buying me the ticket. After taking the money, he disappeared into thin air, defying all attempts to arrest him. He was able to outwit the security men at the airport because he was very conversant with the area.
I reported the case to the Police who admitted it wasn’t the first time he had done such, since some of the Congolese and other nationals at the airport are engaged in fraudulent activities. That was the end of my attempt to recover my money or ticket.
On another occasion, I went to buy a phone at Kempton Park. I withdrew money from the ATM of Standard Bank and paid the phone seller, who happens to be a Nigerian. The phone cost 600 Rands. The following day, he and other colleagues approached us as we passed by and claimed 200 Rands of the money I paid him with was fake.
We tried to reach a compromise by asking them to show us the fake notes so we replace them but they refused. We also proposed that they bring the remaining four hundred Rands so we return their phone too but that also didn’t yield any result so they collected the phone by force from us and in the ensuing confusion the phone fell down and broke.
That was the end of the phone and the money.
Based on those experiences and others, I would like to advise all travelers to South Africa to be wary of some elements who approach them to offer unwarranted support or help and when buying at the markets, they should exercise a lot of caution.
This is not to tag the country as a violent or crime-prone one but to help avoid unfortunate experiences such as the ones I had, and as I was told, others have also gone through.
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