A group of about 100 pensioners were left high and dry after the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) stood them up.
The excited former shop stewards were supposed to go for a visit to the Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront and were at the door but were informed at the last minute that the excursion had been cancelled.
Carol Carolis, 65, says on top of that, they had to walk about 10 kilometres to the Cape Town train station to get home.
A kwaad Carol says: “We were looking forward to being at the aquarium.
“I have been there before but some people had never been there. It was such a disappointment to not go in.
“We came from different parts of the city. I’m from Retreat, some were from Kuils River, Mitchells Plain and other places.
“The Cosatu people arranged this trip, we have our chairman at the church, and he sent us the excursion schedule for the year and confirmed with me on Tuesday morning and said there was going to be a bus that would take us to the aquarium.”
But the bus driver told them he was already at the Waterfront and they were forced to take a train to town.
She explains: “We got to Cape Town and had to pay money to get to the aquarium, and we paid for some people because it would have been unfair to leave others behind.
“The arrangement was that we were going to ride the bus to the aquarium for free.
“When we got to the aquarium, I went inside and I found other ladies there and asked the staff about the seniors.
“They asked if we didn’t know that the event was cancelled. And there were more than 100 people who were outside and there were more who were coming.”
The oumas say they are angry as the “free” trip cost them a pretty penny and then they didn’t even get to see the fish.
Carol concludes: “We were not prepared to pay so much money for travelling because Cosatu was going to pay for everything and we were supposed to take the train for free.
“We had older people who didn’t know what to do once we got to the station.”
Cosatu’s provincial secretary Malvern de Bruyn says the outing was cancelled due to the upcoming election.
He adds: “We will resume with such programmes in June. We sent out communication to all clubs that we were cancelling all the outings.”