South Africa is such a country of contrasts, from the geographical diversity, to the people who dwell here. I went shopping for a few things, at the local Spar, earlier! I was offered friendly, helpful service, by one of the young black male shelf-packers, when I couldnt reach my wife, Paulas, favourite yoghurt! That made me feel good. I completed my shopping and then headed to the tills. The cashier, at whose till I end up at, is chatting happily away, in Zulu, to a black customer. I wait patiently, for them to conclude their conversation, which ends with her asking the man, to give his wife her greetings. He walks away, happily and I greet the cashier in my usual civil way. She ignores me and starts to ring up my purchases. Once she has done this, I hand my debit card over to her and thank her. Once again, I am ignored. She swipes my card and without so much as a glance in my direction, she asks, aggressively, whether my bank account is a cheque account or a savings account. I tell her, that it is a savings account. She then punches in the appropriate code, into the system and my till slip prints out. This is shoved across, in my direction and a pen is slammed down on the counter, for me to sign the slip. I sign the slip and thank her again. Once more, I am ignored. By this stage, I am feeling peeved and I ask her if she only communicates with a select group of customers. She looks at me with a disdainful stare and starts ringing up the next customers purchases. I walk away unhappy and feeling less inclined to give that shop any more of my custom. I then push my trolley to the car park and am cheerily greeted in French, by a black male car guard (because I drive a Peugeot). I end up having a nice friendly chat with the man, who hails originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He doesnt have the well-paid, secure, cashiers job (protected by her Union membership). He has to rely on the generosity of the shopping centres patrons and yet he was such a happy, friendly guy. Life in Africa can be good the one moment and bad the next, but I guess that it is mostly good!
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 14:21:24 +0000
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