His anxiety about Lindi deepened. He hadn’t anticipated the chaos in an area where ethnic Mozambicans usually outnumbered everyone else. The thugs must have been bussed in. He headed towards the main street, his strides getting longer and quicker. The number of people milling around made it difficult to place the landmarks he remembered from previous visits. And then he saw what he was looking for, Café Dona Flora. He’d been there a number of times and was sure it was the kind of place Lindi would have felt comfortable in. But there was no sign of her. Perhaps she’d got a later taxi. What if she’d never got out of Nelspruit?

As he came out of the café, Kagiso noticed that the Spurs fast-food outlet was shut, its burglar bars pulled across and a private security guard in front of it. He kept walking. The shop and café at the BP garage was full of people but it had long since run out of anything to serve or sell. He moved on. A glimpse of white skin in the crowd. Kagiso rushed over, pulling people out of the way, like a swimmer struggling against the tide. He burst through, calling for Lindi, only to find the woman as shocked as he was surprised. She was an American Peace Corps volunteer. Kagiso apologised and said he was looking for a white woman.

‘Well, all the whites have locked themselves in their homes or left town so if she’s out you shouldn’t have a problem finding your friend. She’d sure stick out in this crowd.’

Kagiso turned away and then, as an afterthought, asked the woman if she was okay.

‘I’m fine. The guys who did all this have moved on. They took some money off me but basically they were only interested in the foreigners – well, the Mozambicans. I’m just waiting for a couple of other volunteers and then we’re out of here. But thanks for asking.’

He was running out of road. It was less crowded at this end of the street. He didn’t know this part of town. Kagiso looked down a side-street and saw a sign for the Ling Wong Sporting Tavern, on a board painted in the Coca-Cola livery. He left the dazzling light of a winter afternoon and entered the building.