Waiting for someone at Cape Town Station – or anywhere for that matter – can be mind-numbing so one tends to try to find something to do to occupy the time until the person arrives.

In these modern times, the smartphone is often the source of passing time and that is just what I found myself doing on Tuesday afternoon at Cape Town station. I decided to test the panoramic feature on my phone’s camera – something I haven’t done yet since getting my new phone. The picture turned out OK (want to test it at a stadium or in an open field next) and then I moved to another section of the station.

As I found my new spot, I saw a rush of people going by and had a hipster moment. I thought, “Wow. This would make a cool picture for Instagram.” Sure enough, I took the picture. Was just about to add a filter when a security guard came up to me and told me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures.

“You can’t,” he said.

“Why?” I asked, while holding up my phone to try to get another snap.

“No. You can’t. You must take it off,” he insisted.

This confused me. I asked again: “But why? Who says I can’t?”

“Uh uh. No. My supervisor says.”

“Where are the signs here at the station that says I cannot take pictures. I’m not going to do anything harmful with it. I just like taking photos.”

“No, no, no. You can put it on Facebook,” says the security. Because Facebook is going to do what, I thought sarcastically.

“What does that have to do with anything? If you can show me a sign that says ‘no photos’ I will delete it.”

Then he mumbled something about my phone being nice and walked off.

The whole exchange had me stumped so I took to Twitter and asked @CapeTownTrains if there was a rule against taking photos at the station.

They replied with the following:

@aneeqah Thank you for informing us. I’ll send you info on this issue in a few mins.

— Metrorail W/Cape (@CapeTownTrains) August 20, 2013

That was yesterday around 4pm. I’ve yet to receive an explanation.

I tweeted them again earlier today and they replied with:

@Aneeqah Good Afternoon. The information will be sent to you today still. Thanks

— Metrorail W/Cape (@CapeTownTrains) August 21, 2013

In the meantime, is there anyone out there who can explain why I was told not to take photos?

These are the photos I took

UPDATE:

Metrorail eventually responded to me with the following:

So essentially the security guard had no right to stop me from taking a photograph. He must have been on a power trip.