INFURIATED AT BORDER

Sir,

I am writing this letter out of anger at an incident I witnessed on my way back from visiting some relatives in the Republic of South Africa. It was just after midday when I was at one of the bordergates of the country which boggled my mind, left me utterly disgusted and angry. What happened to first come first served?

The immigration department counters were being manned by a few officials on that fateful day. I say fateful because I had never seen such happening even though I travel a lot due to the fact that I have quite a number of relatives and friends in the neighbouring country. It was a rather hot day and I was in a queue to stamp my passport while ahead of me there was a Caucasian couple. In front of the couple were two black gentlemen and a family that was being attended to by one of the officials. When the first gentleman moved forward to have his passport stamped by a male official, as it was his turn, the official turned him back and called the Caucasian couple to come to him instead, even though there were two people in front of the couple waiting to be served.

The people in the queue grumbled but not one of us was brave enough to ask the official why he did what he did.  Incidentally, it couldn’t have been that the couple was there earlier as I was queuing a few steps behind them even at the South African side of the border.

Could this have been a tourism courtesy act as the couple was travelling in a foreign registered vehicle? Do the immigration principals condone such behaviour by the immigration officials?
I want to believe that this was an isolated case that should never recur at our borders.

I was not impressed and felt very angry. What went on at the bordergate needs to be fixed as soon as possible because it is giving the impression that some people are better than others and quite frankly it is disgusting, therefore it needs to be fixed soon.
 
J V Umlangeni 

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