Farmer Helps Man Travelling from Mahikeng get Back on the Road

As the first annual anti-racism week in South Africa draws to a close today, a local businessman is one of many SA citizens who have shared stories of the true uBuntu that is happening in the country, behind the political headlines.

Collin Macheke wrote this morning:

“As I drove back on the N4 highway, from Mahikeng [formerly known as Mafikeng] yesterday, 40 kilometres before Swartruggens, my car suddenly developed an acute technical problem. It was severe but not a total mechanical failure.

“It was a solo drive and I did not feel safe to call for help and wait for the mechanic to arrive, lest opportunistic criminals took advantage of the situation.

“I decided to steer the car at 30 kilometres per hour.

“Five kilometres before Swartruggens, I stopped. A white man wearing a big John Tate vest and veldskoene approached me. He examined the car and offered to help with a make-shift solution if I drove into his farm.”

Armed with his toolbox, and still wearing his big John Tate vest, the man went under the car on clay soil. He was there a full 45 minutes before he emerged and explained what the problem had been to Macheke, and told him it was all fixed.

Not only that, but after exchanging names and numbers, he also “insisted on driving behind me for about 10 kilometres to make sure the car was fine and would be safe for me to drive home.”

Macheke says he gave the man R300 “to buy a Bells”…although the man said he was going to rather “organise Klipdrift and coke and relax at home”.

Macheke says: “It struck me that with current racial tensions in South Africa, it took the gallant action of a white Afrikaner man from Swartruggens to help me during my moment of need.”

Thank you to all kind Samaritans in South Africa, of all colours and cultures!