Miscommunication

Yesterday, Mumsy and I were stuck in traffic on our way to Pretoria when we noticed lots and lots of helicopters flying towards and over the capital city.

There is a military air base in the area, so in our boredom while stuck in traffic (is there ALWAYS traffic on the PTA/JHB road?) we were speculating about the nature of the aircraft… practicing for an air show was definitely an option, but from our inexperienced eyes, the dozen or so helicopters spread out across the skies looked like they were actually sweeping the area.

Next thing (still stuck in traffic on the N14), we were suddenly swamped by police cars screaming past in the emergency lane. Oooookay – the cops are either on their way to watch the air show, or they know something up ahead that we don’t. We waited for something to explode, like it does in movies, but we were bitterly disappointed.

I found out later in the day what was actually happening… A serious case of broken telephone.

“There were red faces on Tuesday when a misunderstanding resulted in dozens of heavily-armed policemen, wearing bullet-proof vests, storming into the Pretoria High Court…

It later came to light that their manoeuvres were prompted by an innocent conversation between a policeman on duty at the trial and a police buddy. The one told the other over a police radio something to the effect that the Boeremag was "on the move", intending to convey that the trial was going ahead as normal. The conversation was apparently overheard by someone else on the radio frequency, who thought this meant that there were big problems and that the Boeremag accused were on the run.

Within minutes of the word getting around, all units were put on alert and rushed to court. Some of the marked police vehicles were parked half way up the pavement in front of the court building as the officers rushed to get inside.”