Angella Johnson
It was not the welcome South African backpacker David Martin (23) expected when he tried to enter Morocco during his 16-month adventure-packed tour across the continent.
Despite having a valid visa, the University of Cape Town graduate was stopped at a military border post, marched through a minefield and forced to wait four days alone in a cave in the Sahara.
Martin and a friend had been travelling overland through Africa since May 1997. They travelled through some 20 countries before reaching Mauritania two weeks ago.
Because Martin was carrying a South African passport, he needed a visa to enter Morocco, which he duly acquired. They travelled by truck across the Sahara and were guided through the minefield between Mauritania and Morocco.
In a letter to his mother Martin described his ordeal: “Everyone passed through to Morocco without a problem but when they saw my passport the head of the military said: `This is a military post, no African may pass here.'”
He tried to explain that he had a visa that clearly showed Bir Guendouz as the place of entry.
“Embassies are civilian, we are military. I take orders from military!” barked the soldier.
The soldiers forced the truck to enter Morocco, leaving Martin behind. He was ordered into the minefield to wait for the next convoy of trucks heading back to Mauritania.
“I found a cave and built walls with rocks. Once a day I held my breath and walked 2km through the minefield to the military post where I could get water and some bread,” Martin wrote.
He lived in the cave with a South African flag flying above him during a fierce three-day sandstorm, “quietly going insane” before being rescued by a Moroccan driver.
Numb and disoriented, Martin returned to Mauritania, and caught a flight to Casablanca. He wrote: “I’m devastated that some stupid, one-eyed military chief has destroyed my Cape Town-to- London by land.”
His mother, Annette Champion, has sent a letter to the Moroccan embassy in Pretoria to complain about the “inhumane treatment” meted out to her son.
She said the South African embassy in Rabat is also looking into the matter.
“It is inconceivable to me that a young man was sent into a minefield, sole, alone and without shelter, because a military person didn’t recognise the legal documentation of his own country,” Champion said.