WATCH: Could Uniondale be SA's most haunted town?

File photo: The ghost of Maria can be seen trying to hitch a ride back into town and disappears when she gets into your car. Picture: Pixabay

File photo: The ghost of Maria can be seen trying to hitch a ride back into town and disappears when she gets into your car. Picture: Pixabay

Published Oct 15, 2019

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Are you a fan of things that go bump in the night? What about paranormal TV shows? 

With Halloween around the corner, we decided to go in search of some of South Africa's most haunted towns and cities, and the one town that kept on cropping up during our online research was Uniondale. 

For those who aren't familiar with the small town in the Klein Karoo, Uniondale is home to one of SA's most famous ghosts - the Ghost of Uniondale.

According to legend, Maria Roux and her fiancé were driving outside of the town one night when they crashed. There are conflicting accounts of the story, with some saying both died while others claimed that Maria was the only one to perish in the accident. 

And so, the ghost of Maria can be seen trying to hitch a ride back into town and disappears when she gets into your car.

It's not exactly the making of a horror movie, but it's the eyewitness accounts that will have the hair on the back of your neck standing to attention.

Uniondale's tourism  website reported numerous encounters with the ghost. One such story was reported by a young man who saw her on Good Friday, 1973, and offered her a lift. She got into the car and gave her destination as "Porterstraat twee, de Lange".

After traveling a short distance she disappeared. The distressed man reported the incident to the local police, who offered to follow him to the site of the incident in another vehicle.

Just outside Uniondale, the passenger door of the young man’s vehicle opened and closed as if someone had just got out. He stopped immediately and consulted with the white-faced policeman, who had seen the door open and close without any movement from the young man.

A local movie about Maria Roux was made in 2014. "Die Spook van Uniondale" tells the story of Stefan who is on his way to visit his parents in Baviaanskloof. He drives through Uniondale where his car overheats. And that's when strange occurrences happen.

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