It was about 06:45 on Sunday. I was taking my daughter, who does horse jumping, to the Fort Klapperkop stables. As we got into the car, runners started running past our gate. Getting out of our own gate was simply impossible. No runner would bother to stop or even attempt to move to the other side of the road. As we drove towards Fountain Circle, I started getting worried – these runners were making use of the only road to Fort Klapperkop, Johan Rissik Drive.
When we got to the western entrance and slowly but surely crept up the hill at a speed that barely got the speedometer moving, runners were shouting expletives at us, hitting the car, and showing us the finger. I knew then what it must be like to find yourself in the middle of a riot. What made things worse was that the watering point was built halfway across the road and we had to nudge our way past it.
I used to be a marathon runner myself and I never challenged a vehicle of any kind. My first reaction always was ‘hey I’m the vulnerable one here, better get out of the way’. I also know, as an ex-runner, that the road is basically the only way to run long distance. It is unfortunately also true that running is not the only sport in the Pretoria East area and for those runners who do not realise this, in the world as well. I’m afraid that with the attitude of runners such as we experienced, it will not be long before we read again that some poor ‘victim’ was killed by a car or a truck.
What if someone’s horse was in a critical condition and it was necessary to transport it to Onderstepoort? Or even worse, a child riding at Klapperkop stables fell off her/his horse and had to be rushed to hospital?
