Katharina Schindler
14 September 2008
Cape Town — The sad saga of the Robben Island ferry continued last week when 65 passengers turned up at the Nelson Mandela Gateway only to be told their booking was invalid.
"We booked for Friday, but their computer system had put us down on Thursday," said an upset Noeleen Kellerman, who was one of a group of 46 adults and children from the Cape Town Faith Apostolic Centre and 19 American friends from the Berean Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
The ferry staff said the group should have been there on Thursday. They also refused to give them a refund, but did find room for them on a later ferry.
Kellerman said she had been anxious, frustrated and confused at the same time when they were told their tickets were not valid.
The group had to wait for 90 minutes at the Gateway before the Robben Island Museum's marketing manager arrived to sort out the problem.
Ticket sales manager Shareena Abrahams told Weekend Argus: "We don't know if the date was right or wrong. But it was definitely their fault that they did not check the tickets after they had bought them on Wednesday."
She said the group had also arrived 20 minutes late for the 9am voyage they were expecting to join on Friday, and the ferry had already left. Kellerman, however, denied this, saying they had been "just in time".
The group accepted an offer of a voyage at 2pm the same day. Kellerman said: "I am so grateful that we got a trip. It's my first visit to the island."
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