A desperate Johannesburg man was left stranded after travelling all the way to Cape Town for a job interview only to be told, ‘sorry, you’re too late’.
Mario Mendel, 33, says if it weren’t for a kind-hearted cop at Bishop Lavis Police Station, he would have ended up dwaaling around the streets of Cape Town indefinitely.
The divorced dad of two, who lost his job as a health and safety administrator during the lockdown, says he was forced to live in a shelter in Johannesburg, where he used his cellphone to do job applications every day.
“I was applying everywhere and after some time, an upholstery place in Cape Town said I got an interview as an upholstery assistant,” he says.
“I didn’t work for months and was desperate to support my two sons, so I sold my cellphone for R600 and bought a bus ticket to Cape Town.”
Mario arrived in town on Monday morning but when he got off the bus in Bellville, he realised had no taxi fare and decided to walk to the interview in Maitland.
“I asked for directions and started walking, but I got lost.
“I ended up on Robert Sobukwe and someone saw me and told me I was in danger walking with my bags and showed me how to get to Bishop Lavis police station,” he explains.
“When I arrived and explained my situation, they took me to Maitland because the shop was opposite that police station.”
Mario says after arriving two hours late for the interview, he was crushed when he was told it was all for nothing.
“The guy named Eric just said they gave the job to someone else.
I left and went to Maitland Police Station but they said they cannot help me and I walked back.”
On arrival, Bishop Lavis cops put him in contact with social workers and gave him a place to sleep.
The next day Sergeant Moses Moahloli, who works as a crime analyst, says he got a skrik when he saw Mario sitting near the holding cells.
“I immediately knew he wasn’t a skollie from Lavis.
“He told me he had not eaten, so I took him to a takeaways to eat,” he says.
The sarge immediately started crowd-funding and asked the shop owner for a donation.
“I got a R50 first. Then I stopped another person in the street and told Mario to tell his story and I got another R50.
“I took a brown envelope around the station and raised R600 for a ticket back home.”
When the Daily Voice visited Lizhan Upholstery on Voortrekker Road to ask why they wouldn’t give Mario a second chance, the owners became angry and declined to comment.
Mario boarded a bus home on Thursday and arrived safely on Friday, telling the Daily Voice: “I have never come across such kind people like I did in Bishop Lavis.
“If it wasn’t for them, I may have never been able to get home.”