An altercation between two men and a family travelling in the Kruger National Park exploded in a road-side fist fight, and was captured by a nearby photographer.
The pictures show three men, two of whom were later stopped by a game ranger and described as "pissed drunk" to police officers. The other is Mr Ambrose, seen in the pictures wearing a blue shirt, who claims he, his family and friends were accosted by the men who followed them, throwing bottles of alcohol at them, swore at them and, in the process, assaulted him.
Alwyn Myburgh, the photographer, wrote the following details of the event on a photography forum:
Statement from the photographer:
This was unbelievable for us as a family to experience about two kilometres from Crocodile Bridge inside the Kruger Park.
We were at a rhino sighting when the Ford stopped behind us, blocking the road and two guys got out. The one proceeded into the bush to relieve himself.
As a family in a Mercedes stopped, the guy who had relieved himself aggressively approached the Mercedes.
A passenger wearing a blue shirt got out of the Mercedes, bleeding from injuries to his hand and his head. The occupants of the Ford had apparently thrown a bottle through the window of the Mercedes about 20 kilometres back.
The man in the blue shirt then defended himself from numerous punches thrown by the guy in the striped shirt.
When it looked like it was all over, the Mercedes pulled off towards Crocodile Bridge, the guys in the Ford gave chase at one hell of a speed weaving through the vehicles at the sighting.
We called the emergency number of the Park, and they said they would send a ranger. I gave my details to the family in the Mercedes, as I took many pics of the incident.
They subsequently contacted me and apparently all the ranger did was laugh at the story and keep the two guys until they sobered up. He then let them go.
Statement from the family:
Talk Radio 702 reported on the incident and published this statement below by Meloshanie Ambrose, whose husband was attacked:
Here's my husband's comment (which he first posted) on the SANPARKS forum:
I am the driver of the merc involved in this incident and here is my story. We were on a family vacation at KNP and were having a fantastic holiday until it was marred by this unfortunate, racist incident which left my 7 year old daughter and other members of our party traumatised.
We are a long way into democracy and never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be at the receiving end of a racist attack. On our way toward the exit at croc bridge we passed many vehicles pulled off at the side of the road viewing the game and we, like the vehicles ahead of us, passed these cars and continued with our drive out.
A few minutes later we saw a car come with speed behind us and pull up next to us and these 2 guys were screaming and shouting vulgarities at us. They kept screaming..."F##@ koolies" and threw a bottle of alcohol at the car. I am Christian but the friends in the car were a Muslim couple and some of the alcohol fell on the lady and her baby in the backseat. We then slowed down even more as we did not want any problems as we had kids in our car.
They had however stopped their car, blocked off the road and were running towards us. We reversed as by this stage the kids and the female passenger in my car were hysterical as it was the 1st time we were ever in any sort of confrontation. Eventually they let us pass, but it continued in this way for a good 10-15 km's. they blocking off the road, trying to attack us, greeting other cars passing by and asking them to help them
"F#@# these koolies up", on the fourth time that they had blocked our route, my friend who was the passenger and furious at this stage as his wife and the kids were frantic, jumped off the car and approached these two males who we realised by this stage were very drunk.
He asked the guys "what's wrong", "why are you behaving in this way" and he replied in Afrikaans "What the F##@ are we Koolies doing in his land", my friend laughed at him and that's when the Afrikaans speaking man hit him with a broken alcohol bottle. After that my friend retaliated by defending himself from this attacker with the broken bottle. The other person in his company was in the meantime on his cellphone calling his friends to meet them outside croc bridge gate as he said he wants to teach the Koolies a lesson.
We eventually managed to get past them, but they sped past us again and blocked off our road, while throwing alcohol bottles at us. They blocked our path for the last time at the Total garage at the exit. At this stage the passenger from that vehicle got off and ran towards us, with a broken bottle in his hand, shouting obscenities at us. People who were at the garage blocked off their path and we managed to get away to the exit.
We waited for the ranger to come, told him our story and with a smirk on his face told us it's our word against the drunks. The gate guards told him they witnessed the bottle being thrown at us at the garage and the ranger told him to put the bottle in the bin. The ranger told us to report the incident to Komatipoort SAPS and he'll take care of the drunks.
The saddest part is that these two drunks had a little girl barely over two and a half years old in the car with them. The SAPS called the ranger in our presence and the cop was told that the two guys were "pissed drunk and can't walk and will wait until they sober up". The police on duty told us that most people in the area are very racist and they don't like Indians. We were very shocked to hear this. He also said the ranger should have called the Skukuza SAPS as they are within the park and deal with all incidents that happen within the park.
We were then told by the officer that we must be very careful for the rest of our holiday in that area as our car will now be marked by these guys. We left it at that and returned home at the end of that week only to find out today about these blogs about our incident.
After reporting the incident to the Komatipoort SAPS we were told that it will be a lengthy process, many court appearances etc, but which will most likely never be taken further in the legal system. We live in KZN and work for corporate companies, it will be difficult to take time off and come up into Mpumalanga Province.
We're just relieved that our story is now out. We are decent, well educated families, who went to KPN to enjoy our Christmas vacation. It is very sad to have to explain to a seven year old child what terms like "Koolie" means, especially a child born in the democracy who has no concept of race or colour.
To all the other bloggers who say it takes 2 to tango, yes I would have also said the same if I saw an article like this, but unfortunately this time it was not the case. We love nature and go away most weekends to various game and nature reserves around the country, and the statement that we were driving recklessly is totally absurd.
The ranger may have felt that a racist attack is no big deal and happens only between riff-raffs, but wouldn't you say two drunk men having an altercation with members of the public, driving recklessly while having a child in their care, is some form of child neglect/abuse??? Interesting to hear what the blogger who knows the ranger very well has to say.
http://news.iafrica.com/sa/697918.html
There is more to this than meets the eye....
The pictures show three men, two of whom were later stopped by a game ranger and described as "pissed drunk" to police officers. The other is Mr Ambrose, seen in the pictures wearing a blue shirt, who claims he, his family and friends were accosted by the men who followed them, throwing bottles of alcohol at them, swore at them and, in the process, assaulted him.
Alwyn Myburgh, the photographer, wrote the following details of the event on a photography forum:
Statement from the photographer:
This was unbelievable for us as a family to experience about two kilometres from Crocodile Bridge inside the Kruger Park.
We were at a rhino sighting when the Ford stopped behind us, blocking the road and two guys got out. The one proceeded into the bush to relieve himself.
As a family in a Mercedes stopped, the guy who had relieved himself aggressively approached the Mercedes.
A passenger wearing a blue shirt got out of the Mercedes, bleeding from injuries to his hand and his head. The occupants of the Ford had apparently thrown a bottle through the window of the Mercedes about 20 kilometres back.
The man in the blue shirt then defended himself from numerous punches thrown by the guy in the striped shirt.
When it looked like it was all over, the Mercedes pulled off towards Crocodile Bridge, the guys in the Ford gave chase at one hell of a speed weaving through the vehicles at the sighting.
We called the emergency number of the Park, and they said they would send a ranger. I gave my details to the family in the Mercedes, as I took many pics of the incident.
They subsequently contacted me and apparently all the ranger did was laugh at the story and keep the two guys until they sobered up. He then let them go.
Statement from the family:
Talk Radio 702 reported on the incident and published this statement below by Meloshanie Ambrose, whose husband was attacked:
Here's my husband's comment (which he first posted) on the SANPARKS forum:
I am the driver of the merc involved in this incident and here is my story. We were on a family vacation at KNP and were having a fantastic holiday until it was marred by this unfortunate, racist incident which left my 7 year old daughter and other members of our party traumatised.
We are a long way into democracy and never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be at the receiving end of a racist attack. On our way toward the exit at croc bridge we passed many vehicles pulled off at the side of the road viewing the game and we, like the vehicles ahead of us, passed these cars and continued with our drive out.
A few minutes later we saw a car come with speed behind us and pull up next to us and these 2 guys were screaming and shouting vulgarities at us. They kept screaming..."F##@ koolies" and threw a bottle of alcohol at the car. I am Christian but the friends in the car were a Muslim couple and some of the alcohol fell on the lady and her baby in the backseat. We then slowed down even more as we did not want any problems as we had kids in our car.
They had however stopped their car, blocked off the road and were running towards us. We reversed as by this stage the kids and the female passenger in my car were hysterical as it was the 1st time we were ever in any sort of confrontation. Eventually they let us pass, but it continued in this way for a good 10-15 km's. they blocking off the road, trying to attack us, greeting other cars passing by and asking them to help them
"F#@# these koolies up", on the fourth time that they had blocked our route, my friend who was the passenger and furious at this stage as his wife and the kids were frantic, jumped off the car and approached these two males who we realised by this stage were very drunk.
He asked the guys "what's wrong", "why are you behaving in this way" and he replied in Afrikaans "What the F##@ are we Koolies doing in his land", my friend laughed at him and that's when the Afrikaans speaking man hit him with a broken alcohol bottle. After that my friend retaliated by defending himself from this attacker with the broken bottle. The other person in his company was in the meantime on his cellphone calling his friends to meet them outside croc bridge gate as he said he wants to teach the Koolies a lesson.
We eventually managed to get past them, but they sped past us again and blocked off our road, while throwing alcohol bottles at us. They blocked our path for the last time at the Total garage at the exit. At this stage the passenger from that vehicle got off and ran towards us, with a broken bottle in his hand, shouting obscenities at us. People who were at the garage blocked off their path and we managed to get away to the exit.
We waited for the ranger to come, told him our story and with a smirk on his face told us it's our word against the drunks. The gate guards told him they witnessed the bottle being thrown at us at the garage and the ranger told him to put the bottle in the bin. The ranger told us to report the incident to Komatipoort SAPS and he'll take care of the drunks.
The saddest part is that these two drunks had a little girl barely over two and a half years old in the car with them. The SAPS called the ranger in our presence and the cop was told that the two guys were "pissed drunk and can't walk and will wait until they sober up". The police on duty told us that most people in the area are very racist and they don't like Indians. We were very shocked to hear this. He also said the ranger should have called the Skukuza SAPS as they are within the park and deal with all incidents that happen within the park.
We were then told by the officer that we must be very careful for the rest of our holiday in that area as our car will now be marked by these guys. We left it at that and returned home at the end of that week only to find out today about these blogs about our incident.
After reporting the incident to the Komatipoort SAPS we were told that it will be a lengthy process, many court appearances etc, but which will most likely never be taken further in the legal system. We live in KZN and work for corporate companies, it will be difficult to take time off and come up into Mpumalanga Province.
We're just relieved that our story is now out. We are decent, well educated families, who went to KPN to enjoy our Christmas vacation. It is very sad to have to explain to a seven year old child what terms like "Koolie" means, especially a child born in the democracy who has no concept of race or colour.
To all the other bloggers who say it takes 2 to tango, yes I would have also said the same if I saw an article like this, but unfortunately this time it was not the case. We love nature and go away most weekends to various game and nature reserves around the country, and the statement that we were driving recklessly is totally absurd.
The ranger may have felt that a racist attack is no big deal and happens only between riff-raffs, but wouldn't you say two drunk men having an altercation with members of the public, driving recklessly while having a child in their care, is some form of child neglect/abuse??? Interesting to hear what the blogger who knows the ranger very well has to say.
http://news.iafrica.com/sa/697918.html
There is more to this than meets the eye....
