Pretoria - After spending three days and nights outside the British High Commission in Pretoria, Patronella Treasure is still anxiously waiting for answers on why her visa has been declined.
Treasure began her lone picket on Monday in a desperate attempt to be granted a visa to join her husband John Treasure in Britain.
The 46-year-old from Soshanguve has been sleeping, eating and bathing in her car parked outside the high commission.
When the Pretoria News visited her, she was lying in the back of her Toyota Avanza visibly drained. She has been sleeping in the back of her car and admitted that at times, especially at nights, she got scared that something might happen to her. “It's really not safe for a woman to be out in the streets at night; anything can happen to me, but I’m left with no choice because I need solid answers about my visa,” she said.
Since she got married last year, she has been refused a visiting visa on five occasions with no valid reasons or a right to appeal or administration review, she said.
For years, she travelled in and out of the UK without any glitch when she visited her then fiancé, she said. In 2012 while she was visiting him, she was involved in a bus accident at Heathrow Airport in London.
Treasure said she was a passenger in a bus which crashed into a minibus taxi. She sustained severe back and shoulder injuries and was admitted to Wexham Park Hospital.
Treasure added that she was emotionally and psychologically drained. “I just want to be in my husband’s arms and get treatment for my injuries.”
Her husband, meanwhile, spoke to the Pretoria News from Slough, west of London, and said he was disappointed. He said he believed the British High Commission officials in Pretoria were prejudiced and racist.
The 73-year-old said he was a soldier and guarded the British Queen for nine years, and made sure that she was safe and free from harm and thus feels betrayed that this was happening to him. “This is the thanks I get for guarding the queen; a slap in my face by my own authorities,” said John.
He said he fully supported his wife and would be flying to South Africa next month to help her. “It also pains me that I can’t spend time with my wife. We talk every day on the phone, but that is still not enough.”
A spokesman for the high commission said: “All applications for entry clearance to the UK are assessed on their own merits.
“We do not comment on individual cases.”
Pretoria News