A trucker ended up paying R33 000 for carrying a passenger who would have given him just R50 for a ride from Mthatha to Mount Frere this past week.
This after two rifle wielding men claiming to be from a local taxi association in Mthatha stopped him and ended up robbing him of all the cash he had.
He said that, he was stopped by a white VW Polo on the N2 near the China Mall just outside Mthatha towards Kokstad. Two men armed with rifles alighted from the car and accused him of carrying passengers which were meant to be transported by their taxis.
He said he apologised and asked to drop off the female passenger he had picked up just a few hundred metres before.
The men did not want to listen, they told him to take his staff and come into their car so that they would go to the rank and apologise to the taxi owners and pay a fine of R8 000.
He told them he didn’t have that kind of money then they said he should call his boss.
When he told them that he was his own boss the situation got worse as they accused him of being greedy.
“You are making money with your truck then you come and steal our customers. We should go to the taxi owners they will know how to deal with you,” said one of the men.
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“At this point, I realised I was in serious trouble but to pay R8 000 was just too much, I told myself,” the victim told SA Trucker.
He said he then offered to pay R1 000 so that they would let him go but the guys refused.
One of the guys then hit him on the head with his rifle and demanded he give him his wallet and a small bag that he carried.
“That’s when I knew, I was going to loose a lot of money. I had R28 000 cash in the small bag, which I collected from a client in Butterworth from where I was coming,” said the victim.
The men allegedly took the cash and demanded that he pay more as punishment for lying to them. When he told them he didn’t have more money, the driver of the Polo started the car and started driving away with him.
“In my mind I am thinking, this is a robbery and these men can kill me and get away with it. What do I do?,” the victim said explaining how he felt as his tormentors drove away with him.
He said that the men demanded that he ask his friends for more money if he wanted to live.
“Without hesitating, I called a few friends and managed to raise R5 000 which they also took,” he said.
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One of the men then told him that because he has cooperated well, they would release him but he still owed them.
Asked if he think if he believes they were taxi association security or just robbers taking advantage, the victim said he wasn’t sure saying they were most likely robbers taking advantage of unlawful behaviour of some taxi association security.
He said he suspected that the men may have been working in cahoots with the female passenger as most truck drivers would think they are innocent.
He urged other truckers to desist from lifting passengers if they don’t want to fall into the same problem as he faced.
