Fear, concern and a touch of embarrassment were the emotions experienced by MP Willie Spies when a man, desperate to escape criminals, jumped onto his car's bonnet on Cape Town's N2 highway and told him to drive on.
Freedom Front Plus MP Spies said he broke into a fit of trembling when he thought he was being hijacked after a man jumped onto his car's bonnet yesterday afternoon.
The 27-year-old cellphone repair man, Francisco Petersen, was trying to escape two men who had assaulted and robbed him.
"He got on to the bonnet and grabbed a wiper, it was only then that I realised how injured he was," said Spies.
"His face was bloody and his eye was battered, that's when I realised he was trying to get away and I thought 'this man's life is in danger'."
Spies drove off to get the man to safety and stopped about 1km away from where Petersen had got on. Petersen pleaded that Spies drive on.
With hazard lights on and driving at 40km/h, Spies drove all the way to parliament with Petersen clinging to his bonnet.
Petersen was given medical attention outside parliament.
"Several emotions flooded through me. First the fear, then the concern. It turns out he did not want me to stop because he feared we were being followed.
"Then I felt a bit of embarrassment there I was going along a highway used by many tourists with a guy on my bonnet. It does not create a good picture of this country in the minds of those people."