The Loudest Silence: A VALUE Truck, Your Employee, and the Day My Drive Home Became a War Zone

I am so angry I can barely type this. The words are coming out in a hot, jumbled mess because what happened to me today should not happen to anyone. Ever. I was just driving home. That’s it. A simple, boring, everyday thing. And one of your employees, a man in one of your small white VALUE trucks, decided to turn my drive home into a nightmare of harassment, intimidation, and pure, unadulterated disrespect.

Let me tell you about my Monday. I was on the N1, stuck in that awful 5pm crawl near Century City. Traffic was barely moving. I had my window down because my car was stuffy. Then I heard it. A loud, aggressive honk right next to me. I looked over, and there he was. Your employee. Grinning at me from the cab of his truck. He revved his engine and yelled, “Hey baby!”

My stomach dropped. Not from flattery, but from a sickening wave of violation. I was just a person in a car. He turned me into a target. I looked straight ahead, my face burning. I thought, if I ignore him, he will go away. That is what we are taught to do, right? Make ourselves small. Do not provoke.

He did not go away. In the stop-start traffic, he maneuvered his truck right next to me again. He started making loud, disgusting kissing sounds. “Baby,” he called over, like he owned the word and had a right to throw it at me. I fumbled for the window button, rolling it up, putting a thin sheet of glass between me and his leer. That should have been the end of it. A decent person would have felt ashamed and backed off. But your employee was not done playing his game.

I changed lanes to get away from him. I went to the far right, then later moved back to the middle, thinking I had lost him. I was wrong. Near the M5 interchange, he sped up, drove past me, and thrust his hand out the window in a crude, angry gesture. A clear “screw you” for daring to reject his attention. My heart was pounding now. This was not just harassment anymore. This was rage.

Then, he did the most dangerous, terrifying thing. He swerved his truck directly in front of my car and slammed on his brakes. I had to stomp on my brake pedal to avoid smashing into the back of his truck.My car jerked to a stop. There was no reason for it. The road ahead of him was clear. It was a message. A violent, physical message: “I am bigger than you. I can scare you. I can hurt you.” In that moment, I was not just angry. I was afraid.

That fear is what made me grab my phone. As he drove off, I took pictures. Clear pictures. Of your white VALUE truck.I have evidence of the man who uses your company’s vehicle to terrorize people.

But he still was not finished. As we neared Plattekloof Hill,he was there again, window to window in the sluggish traffic. Now his tone changed. He started yelling at me in Sesotho, calling me names, saying I thought I was “all that.” And then, the most insulting part of all, he shrugged and said, “I’m just playing.”

Playing.
He was playing. My terror was his amusement. My demand to be left alone was a fun challenge.I finally shouted back, my voice cracking, “What is your problem?” He just smirked and said, “You mustn’t be angry.”

You mustn’t be angry. Let that sink in. After all of that—the shouting, the sounds, the gestures, the reckless endangerment—my anger was the problem. Not his behavior. Not the fact that he was a representative of your company acting like a predator on a public road. My reaction to his cruelty was the issue.

I am so tired of this. I am tired of some pople thinking they can claim public space and the people in it for their entertainment. I am tired of being told not to be angry when someone violates my peace and safety. But most of all, right now, I am furious that a man driving a truck with your company’s name on it felt so empowered to do this.

That truck is not just a vehicle. It is a mobile billboard for VALUE. Every time it is on the road, it is telling the world what your company stands for. Today, your company’s representative told me and every other driver on that road that VALUE stands for harassment. That VALUE stands for intimidation. That VALUE stands for a complete lack of professional and human decency.

I am not writing this for an apology. I am writing this for action. You need to find the driver of truck KZ 85 JP GP. You need to ask him how any part of his disgusting, dangerous behavior aligns with his job. And then you need to make sure he never does it again to anyone else.

My anger is not going away. It is the fuel for this email. Let it be the fuel for your response. Do something.