Mr Bernard Mashaba, a rubberising and smash-and-grab technician at a local car dealership in Ermelo, was recently drugged, robbed and left next to the road with only the clothes on his back and R90 in his shirt pocket.
Mr Mashaba had to assist his son, Innocent Mashaba (17), who stays with his mother in the Mbombela area, to obtain his ID.
Because he was in possession of all the documents his son needed, he had no choice but to make the trip.
He, however, doesn’t have his own transport and opted to hitchhike instead of taking a taxi – a decision he would deeply regret later.
According to Mr Mashaba, he travelled with a few different people without any hiccups.
Nearly where he needed to be, he hitched another ride with two men travelling in a double cab bakkie.
According to him, everything seemed fine and he was blissfully unaware of what would soon unfold.
“There was a Checkers Hyper next to the road where they said we would stop for a bathroom-break and also to get something to drink,” Mr Mashaba said.
When they got in the bakkie, the driver told him to take his bags and rather put them in the back as he would have more legroom to sit comfortably.
He left his opened cooldrink on the seat, got out and went to the back of the bakkie to put his bags away.
He recalled, while driving he felt light-headed and asked the men to turn back as he thought there was something seriously wrong with the drink he had just purchased.
They refused and offered an explanation for why he might be feeling unwell.
“They told me that it might be the heat and they opened the windows.
His cell phone rang, a call from his son to find out where he was, but Mr Mashaba said he could barely make sense of the words coming out of his mouth.
He said he vaguely remembers the men asking the pin to his phone and bank card and him grabbing for and trying to pull up the handbrake.
The next memory he had was waking up in Rob Ferreira Hospital, not knowing how he got there, who he was or even the fact that he had a family.
Read the complete article in the next Highvelder Newspaper. The Highvelder also speaks to a local doctor about the nasty concoction he might have been given.
