Namibian Reservation Scam

In early May 2019, we as a family discussed where to go to celebrate our parents 40th wedding anniversary and our moms 60th birthday, both occurring in 2020. We love the bush and had travelled extensively throughout our home country of South Africa. We felt that because these milestones were so special, we would visit one of the places on our bucket list and decided on Namibia. A good family friend recommended Namibia Reservations CC as he had often used them in the past. We made contact with them and after some discussion, their agent put together a wonderful itinerary for us. We duly paid our deposit of R20 000.00 to secure our stay. Due to Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa at the end of March 2020, we were uncertain of whether the lockdown would be lifted in time for our planned June holiday in Namibia. We contacted Namibia Reservations CC in April 2020 to enquire about their postponement and/or cancellation policy. Originally, we were unable to get hold of anyone but did not panic as we knew many countries were similarly under lockdown and assumed the company was closed and someone would contact us. After no contact was made, we became concerned and Googled Namibia Reservations CC in the hope of obtaining a direct contact number. It was then that we discovered that for almost a year, Namibia Reservations CC had been involved in a scam. They would excitedly put together wonderful itineraries for their clients and take their deposit, but not make any bookings on the client’s behalf. We frantically contacted a number of the lodges on our itinerary hoping against hope that we had not been caught up in the scam and that somehow our bookings were secure. However, each of our venues confirmed that we had not been booked with them which made us realise that we have indeed been scammed. Namibia Reservations CC had taken our money for services they did not have any intention of rendering. It has been devastating for all of us to realise that our hard-earned deposit of R20 000.00 had been stolen and will most likely not be able to afford to repeat these holiday plans in the foreseeable future. Our family friend helped us to obtain some background information on Namibia Reservations CC, including the name and number of the owner of the company. We contacted Mark Mueke, explaining what had happened and requested a refund. He claimed he had sold the company in July 2018 and referred us to his attorney. We had however, uncovered information that the sale of the company had not actually been finalised and that Mark was still the owner. We persevered with contacting both Mark Mueke and his attorney, but to date have received very little response and no refund. Our attempts at contacting Namibia Tourism Board in the hope that they would assist us in this matter have been fruitless. We have been advised by other members of the Namibian tourism industry that this is not uncommon and that the Namibian Tourism Board will only provide assistance in the event that a formal legal claim is instituted against Namibia Reservations CC. We will pursue our legal claim against Namibian Reservations CC, however we would like to warn other potential victims against using this unscrupulous agency.