Durban - TWENTY-ONE Malvern pensioners have been left high and dry, after paying R2 500 each - for a trip to Sun City, that never materialised.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said a case of fraud was opened after the group was allegedly defrauded.
The company operated from Moorton, Chatsworth, where its owner and his family live.
The 21 pensioners were scheduled to leave Durban on Tuesday morning, along with 39 other pensioners from Chatsworth, Pinetown, Shallcross and Isipingo.
A 75-year-old woman, who collected the money from the Malvern pensioners and handed it over to the owner, said attempts to contact the man were unfruitful.
She said she was part of a Malvern senior citizens’ group, that wanted to go on a trip with the little pension money they had. “We asked around and people spoke highly of this tour company in Chatsworth. We approached the owner and made our first payment on the first of June. The pensioners from Chatsworth, Pinetown, Shallcross and Isipingo also made their payments,” she said.
All payments were in cash and handed to the owner personally.
“These are all pensioners aged 65 to 85. When he collected the last payment, he told me he had booked a bus which was to pick us up from the Malvern Library at 4.30am,” she said.
However, on Tuesday, the 21 pensioners stood with their luggage outside the library, waiting for a bus that never pitched.
According to the pensioner from Malvern, she spoke to the company owner at 4.30am, telling him the group had arrived and he should hurry, as it was cold.
“At 5am, I phoned again, but it went to voicemail. At 5.30am, I phoned his wife on his landline and she said the bus driver had a problem and her husband would be delayed. I phone him again on his cellphone at 6am, but it was still going to voicemail. I started to panic so I phoned the wife again and she told me about the delay again.”
She said, after 7am, some of the pensioners went to the owner’s house and office in Chatsworth, only to find it locked. They then alerted police.
The pensioner said she had dipped into her savings to pay back some of her group members.
“I’m feeling guilty. We were naive, but we had no reason not to trust him. People want answers I don’t have.”