“Egoli the City of Gold – Part II”

As I was saying, having booked myself into a posh Hotel just a stone’s throw away from JNB OR Tambo Airport. The Place is called “Premier Hotel & Resorts”, believe you me, it is a Five Star Hotel! Located along Gladiator Street, Rhodesfield, Kempton Park. From the window of your Hotel, you are able to see some aircrafts landing, taxing or parking. This is indeed a splendid view; it is an ideal place for a villager because it is quiet but scenic! The Hotel is more or less like our Kigali Serena, it has got over deluxe 300 rooms. We arrived in the evening, just in time for dinner. Being end of May – June, the weather is really cold; it is the southern winter. Temperatures sometimes go as low as ZERO degrees centigrade but are normally at 10°C during the day and quite chilly in the evenings and nights. It is said that, citizens of most of the South African states like Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa to an extent, resort to wearing or wrapping themselves in blankets in order to ward off the cold. Ireally wonder when people talk of Kinigi or Byumba as being cold. In JNB, if you visited now and did not have warm clothing, you stand to catch deadly diseases like pneumonia and could end up dead before you know it! This is no place for the poor villagers! That said and done, there was no cause for alarm, I was tucked into the comfort of a 5 star Hotel, with all the life supporting amenities like Air conditioner, heater, hot water, etc. Having completed a nice shower, I decided to go down stairs for a bite. We had left Kigali before lunch, had a meal on the plane, but as you know, some of us (villagers) can never say that we have had a meal unless it comprises of the necessary ingredients like posho, rice, ibirayi, inkoko y’abanyarwanda (read beans), some beef, etc. I descended to the restaurant that is located on the ground floor. The service is purely buffet, one can eat as much as you like, I mean serve yourself as many rounds as your stomach can carry. It is not like in Kigali where someone stands next to the meat dish, take one piece and you are safe, any additional piece of meat taken attract a surcharge! Just as we were in the middle of our dinner, a middle aged Muzungu man came over and began narrating a story to the guys at the neighbouring table. He was saying that, some of the Hotel’s rooms had been bugled into. To be precise, about four rooms on the fourth floor had been broken into and valuables like laptops etc taken.At this moment, the hotel security was still checking to establish which rooms had been affected and what had been stolen. The scenario was stinking, there wasno sign of thieves and yet a theft had taken place! The hypothesis was that, the thieves must have checked in as Guests, they must have marked their targets well and timed dinner time. They hit and retreated into the comfort of their rooms as guests! The problem is one, in a 5 Star Hotel; you cannot carry out a body or baggage search on your esteemedguests!