Last weekend was an opportunity for one to break away from it all. Or was it?
After speeding off from Bela-Bela last Friday 29 June, my port of entry was Leriba Hotel and Spa in Gauteng’s leafy neighbourhood of Centurion.
Such as the time I used to be on the board of the National Council for many years, I was back to my favourite pastime of looking for an address in the big cities.
Finding the Leriba Hotel and Spa was one of the easiest escapades for me.
I hear you mumble “GPS”.
My foot! We the ol’ man rivers of suburban freeways do not depend on such, as it is a matter of calling the other end and ask for directions.
And therefore, GPS is a subject for another day.
The journey to Centurion was for one to represent The BEAT at the gala dinner for the Forum for Community Journalists (FCJ) Excellence Awards.
A special moment for me at the awards was when I shuffled towards the VIP table, to say my greetings to my journalism elder, former managing editor at Sowetan, and also outgoing Press
Ombudsman, Bra Joe Tholoe.
That the recipient of the Presidential Order for Ikhamanga still remembered me was a huge reward for me.
The awards ceremony was the nerve centre of the crème de la crème of community journalism, with editors and reporters arriving from as far afield as Paarl in the Western Cape, and the North
West’s university town of Potchefstroom.
The downside, ‘though, was when I touched base with friends and family in the township of Mabopane.
It was a painful reminder of the crime-related paranoia when we gathered for a soccer match at a local pub.
Here we “worked” in some form of shifts to check if all was well with our cars parked outside.
That kind of fear sent me back memory lane just a few months ago, when I took in my car for repairs at a dealership in Hercules, Pretoria.
The dealership offered me a certain model as a courtesy car, while I left mine overnight.
On arrival in Soshanguve, also in Pretoria, friends warned me about the popularity of that particular model with car hijackers.
There and then the vehicle had to be hidden in a friend’s garage, and I joined him in his own “safer” model.
Next time you visit Pretoria, or even Johannesburg for that matter, be warned that crime trends change all the time.
For instance, one woman said she was robbed at gunpoint by a man pedalling a bicycle.
Others suggest that “schoolboys” in full uniform carry firearms in school-bags and rob people daylight.
Nearer home, TK Mashaba is reporting on a scam, whereby innocent shoppers are promised discounts if they part with an amount of money.
At least two such cases have been reported to the police in recent days.
— The BEAT
