UnSAFE, UnRELIABLE and UnAFFORDABLE

Safety and affordability means customer care.

I took an Intercape Mainliner bus from Pretoria on the morning of 23 May 2015 at 05:30 bound for Maputo through Nelspruit. The bus arrived at Johannesburg Park Station at approximately 06:35. The bus conductor advised passengers to grab coffee as the bus was going to depart at 08:00. Myself and two other passengers took the opportunity to grab a bite at Wimpy. When we returned to the bus at 07:40 we were told that the bus had left at 07:30. We quickly rushed to the parcel weigh in point to request assistance. We were directed to the Intercape front desk where we had to seek someone either called Desmond or Monde, who we were informed was the Manager.

The ladies there nonchalantly wanted to know our ticket numbers. One of us had her ticket with her while we had left ours inside our bags in the bus. We however had our ticket numbers which we gave to them. They idly got on the phone and told us that the gentleman denies that he said the bus was departing at 08:00. They insisted he said 07:30. We inquired how could the three of us who were sitting at different sections of the bus hear the same ‘wrong message’. The ladies were adamant that we heard it wrong as the departure time was 07:30. We insisted that there is no way that three people who did not know each other until a few hours ago could have schemed to lie about departure time.

They sent us to a gentleman named Mhlambi who was on the boarding terminus and alleged to be the manager. When we finally found Mhlambi he started by giving us a lecture about how the bus left at 07:30 and refused to listen to our complaint beyond the fact that the bus had left us behind and was carrying our luggage. We then inquired about the next stop and he said it was Bertrams, roughly two kilometres from Park Station. We requested him to delay the bus as we would find a way to get there. He told us that the Intercape bus is like an aeroplane; it cannot be stopped once it has ‘taken off’. Time was 08:10. When we asked him what time does it leave Bertrams he assured us that it departs at 08:30 and that its next stop is Witbank.

We rushed and booked a R100.00 maxi taxi to Bertrams. The driver drove fast through traffic and finally arrived there at 08:21. When we inquired with the ticketing agent she said the bus left long ago. “It left at 07:50” she assured us. We stood there wondering why the bus conductor and Mhlambi gave us wrong information about the departure times of the bus.

We then called Intercape Customer Care to lodge our complaint. We were not getting any useful help even when we gave them our ticket numbers. At the end of the day, after failing many times to get assistance the other passenger we were with managed to have her ticket converted by the agent at Bertrams so she can board Translux bus service to Maputo through Nelspruit. When it became obvious that we were not getting relief from the Intercape Call Centre and the agent who told us that her system cannot print Translux tickets even with our ticket number we finally decided to buy Translux tickets so we can get to Nelspruit and rescue our luggage. We both paid R520.00 for Translux even though we were supposed to have travelled on our R209.00 Intercape tickets each.

Once in the Translux bus an Intercape consultant called George called to inquire about the descriptions of the bags and their code so that they can be dropped at Nelspruit where we would salvage them. We described them and minutes later he called to confirm that the bags have been found and they will be left at Nelspruit. We asked how do we lodge an official complaint and he said a consultant will call us about that. The call never came but we got a Ref number C63459. Our complaint to George was that we wanted a reimbursement of our R260.00 since we were not at fault and we had spent R100.00 on a metre taxi and R260.00 on a new ticket.

When we got to Nelspruit at 12:57 and rushed to the Intercape office we found it closed. The security guard told us that the lady had left for the day and we can only salvage our bags either on Sunday or Monday. Everything that I owned was in that hand luggage; house keys, toiletries, clothes and sensitive documents. I come from Bushbuckridge which is roughly 80 kilometres from Nelspruit and the thought of going home without house keys frustrated me. I wondered why did the Intercape office worker leave before 13:00 which I believe is the knock off time.

I called the Call Centre and spoke to a consultant called Sharon who we requested to call the Nelspruit lady to release our bags since she had not been gone for ten minutes and was still around. She refused to call and to give numbers for us to go fetch her and take her back to the taxi stop if she was there.

I ended up booking accommodation in Nelspruit for the night so that I can salvage my house keys and bags the following Sunday, 24 May 2015. I only managed to get my back on that Sunday and left for Bushbuckridge.

I should confess that I felt abused, inconvenienced and short-changed by the service I received at Intercape and proposed a remedy in two letters sent to them. They ignored them and when I finally called a lady named Jessica on the 2^nd of June 2015 she was firm that they will not compensate for any of us. She was firm and cocky that Intercape did nothing wrong and that they will not compensate. I said fine; all I knew is that I will share my story with as many media as possible and we will see who will suffer reputational damage in the long run.

My advice to you: DON’T BOARD INTERCAPE. OR. DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. THEIR STANDARDS ARE THE LOWEST I HAVE FOUND IN A BUS SERVICE. Hahahahahahahaha! This is funny.

MPUMALANGA'S FINEST

Now, here's some raw stuff you'll never get to read anywhere else about my 'hood. Not only is it a lovable 'hood but it also has culture, serious lifestyle and culture that makes it a serious contender for the Presidential Orders, if only they were given to 'hoods. So, this year it was not that different.

Mpumalanga’s flagship hip hop pilgrimage, Luv Ur Hood (themed Marope Ra Maja - we are eating dumbies) kicked off 2011 with a bang. A bang it could be heard in the Libyan cities of Misrata and Benghazi.

Within a short space of four months the stellar session hosted two spasmodic shows that exposed new emcees (cats with rhymes), new voices (poets with lines) and new patrons to this grassroots hip hop extravaganza pioneered by Katsuko (Khutso Malele) and Masta H (Hlompho Lekhuleni).

The 2011 revolution, immediately after the successful Tunisian and Egyptian insurrections started off on 26 March with an outing to Love Life Centre at Acornhoek. Luv Ur Hood has never been held outside of its homebase Ga-Kabila, which is a chillaz doubling as a car-wash and other things the police with ugly berets wouldn't want to read about. F-ck it, those dudes can't read.

In its inaugural outside venture it attracted new emcees who have performed in bedrooms and garages thinking the world was four by four metres wide. You know those cats whose parents bought desktop computers and installed them FruityLoops and Q-Base and who have always rapped their lungs out inspired by the latest video on TRL.

The Luv Ur Hood show exposed the talent of cats such as Eardrumbusters from Bushbuckridge whose intimidating lyrics reminds one of deceased geniuses, Tupac and Biggie - especially on that fearsome 'i f-cked your b-tch' ripper. There was also Thulamahashe’s finest in Crazy Doggz, who are a tight set led by C-well, a veteran of the game. C-well's involvement in the game is as old as Cashless Society.

Mesmerizing was the performance of KFB (who never really jots down his lyrics) and newcomer to the game Young KCee with his mohawk. Modelling his style and swag after the Young Money crew, KCee had half the crowd eating out of his tiny palm as he was accompanied by his cousin and hype-man for the day Masta H. For a moment it reminded me of the old Busta Rhyme and Spliffstar. At least a hundred patrons were entertained. With regulars DJ Sparkle, newcomers JOP, Wonder, Chris Force Feed and two DJs from Radio Bushbuckridge KP and Matt the show gave a platform to b-boys Wild Cats. KP is the older brother to prolific producer and rapper AB-Crazy and him and Matt hosts a show between 18h00 and 21h00 every Friday on Radio Bush. There were also life skills offered by the Love Life team.

On 24 April, barely a month later the duo took the session, themed Mangozi ya tala ka Spice (Raw mangoes eaten with spice), back to its spiritual home, Ga-Kabila in Shatale. Characterised by a proliferation of tight emcees and ghetto merchandise on sale and display, the Freedom Day eve show was off the hook. Snoop Dogg would have said 'off the hinges'.

Krazy Doggz brought their whole entourage, numbering a staggering eight or ten to the show which was graced by hundreds of good-looking clean patrons. Blue Noise from Sabie performed and bootlegged their CD titled Focused. The trio still need a stage act and presence. They looked a little disjointed.

Young KCee held down the stage but the show was flipped by Dwarsloop’s hardcore-manic Dialectic. This younger brother to DJ Sparkle free-styled with so much flow that even KFB who free-styles unhindered had to pick up his game or risk obsolensce. On the day Katsuko performed what is undoubtedly going to become the Luv Ur Hood anthem titled Ke Tšwa Bush. On a show that was more about flexing muscles and impressing hordes of sesenhoritas, C-well blasted, KP and Masta H spit rhymes in Get Your Swag On, a song from H’s still-in-the-kitchen mixtape.

On sale were mixtapes from Krazy Doggz and Blue Noise. Also sold were tons of t-shirts by 100% Lepulana/Tsonga, Re Phela SOH, Luv Ur Hood, Shatale Ya Rocka etc. Langa Media’s Nellie Ndlovu (publisher of Bushbuckridge News) graced the event and showed interest in a partnership. The next Luv Ur Hood show will be hosted by Krazy Doggz in Thulamahashe in June.