I am a South African living and working in Malta. I love this country so much that I came back to live here for good. However, my thoughts of this island are being distorted somewhat when I have to use the extremely poor public transport system here.

The yellow and white buses are supposed to be an icon for Malta but all they represent to me and others is a bunch of know-it-all, I-hate-life bus drivers who have no respect for tourists.

The other morning I had to scream at a bus driver to stop because someone was still trying to get on the bus. The worst part is that he saw her, but because she was not there at exactly the time that another person was getting on, she was not welcome. When I told him to stop he started screaming and swearing at me to keep my mouth shut.

I have had to scream for drivers to stop on many occasions when they have had their selective goggles on and decided not to see the people at bus stops waving them down. I have had bus drivers telling me that their bus is full when I clearly saw open seats at the back, and when I have pointed this out to the drivers one of them even spat at me! I have seen bus drivers telling tourists to get off at The Strand with "This is Paceville, you must get off now". I have been short-changed on a number of occasions or been driven so fast that every small bump has launched me out of my seat.

Instead of driving tourists around this beautiful country, drivers' bad language and attitude is driving them away from it.

The white cabs are also nasty pieces of work. One tried to charge me €20 to get from St Julians to Surf Side and when I saw another attempting to charge something similar to some tourists and told them they were being ripped off, the driver went to fetch a baseball bat from his boot!

This country is getting out of control!