This Taxify driver: ****med us: Red Nissan Sentra: CZ 95 BY GP

15 December 2017 Taxify Red Nissan Sentra: CZ 95 BY GP

At about 2,15 pm at Lanseria airport I was overheard saying to my friend Doris that I had arranged a taxi to Muldersdrift Avianto Hotel for R 250 by a middle aged traveller called Sue. She said that she was paying just R65 to Taxify and that she was going towards Muldersdrift. She teaches mathematics and is involved in getting digital mathematical books to schools. I am a medical doctor and a prescribed author who had been awarded the Olive Schreiner prize for the quality of my prose by the English academy of Southern Africa. The taxi had been summoned by Sue's daughter.

She invited us to join her in the Taxify taxi that she had requested so that we could get to our wedding by 4 pm. We would just have to pay for the remainder of the trip. Sue told the middle aged woman from Taxify who came to pick us up that we were going to Muldersdrift to the Avianto hotel for a 4 pm wedding. I repeated our destination to the driver. The driver did not give me the cost of going to Muldersdrift when I asked her. I was hesitant to get into the taxi but Sue said the driver was worried about the conventional taxi drivers hearing us. However the driver still would not tell us the approximate cost as we proceeded to Sue's stop.

At Sue's stop the driver demanded R 80 and Sue was forced to pay the extra R 15. Sue was left at the side of the road as her lift was coming.

I then typed in 69 Driefontein road, (the address of the Avianto Hotel) on the driver's phone as she had requested. My friend Doris again explained how urgent it was that we got to the Avianto in Muldersdrift as soon as possible. The driver told us that 'if the fare says R 100, you will only have to pay R20 as Sue had paid R 80.' Then the Zimbabwean driver did a U turn and I became suspicious. Eventually my friend Doris noticed that the driver was taking us through Four Ways and told her that she was taking us in the wrong direction. After driving a little more in the wrong direction the driver did another U turn and took us to Muldersdrift. We were obviously very upset by what she had deliberately done. By then it was almost 5 pm. She said we could pay her what we thought was correct but when I tried to pay R 250 she said she would drive off with our bags. She demanded R 450 which I was forced to pay.

This driver's behaviour spoilt our mood. It was an absolutely horrible experience. I have travelled in taxis all over the world from Tokyo to Los Angeles to London to Singapore. I have never experienced like this. And it had to happen in my own country. We told everyone we spoke to at the Avianto hotel about the Taxify driver as well all our family and friends ever since.

Please try to ensure that this does not happen to anyone else.