'Bring back my hand'
Sharon Mathala | Tuesday April 18, 2023 06:00
After a two-year chase, Moyo has lost all hope. He came to The Monitor offices last week seeking to amplify his voice. With a pile of papers and documentation dating as far back as June 2020, Moyo is a man in distress. “I have lost my life and my family.
The mother of my child has also abandoned me. I cannot find any work because of my disability now but the least they could do is compensate me,” he said. Narrating his ordeal, Moyo says he was employed by Kalahari Bricks since 2017.
He says in 2020 whilst going about his usual duties cleaning one of the machines that manufacture bricks, the machine cut his right hand. With blood gushing out of his hand, he was rushed to the Princess Marina Hospital.
He left the severed hand at the workshop and never saw it again. “I left it there by the machine since I was rushing to the hospital. When I was discharged I asked the hospital and the police for the hand but they said they never took it. I asked for it from my employer, but they have not given me a straight answer. I want the remaining piece of my hand, I really do,” he said.
“They have never assisted me with any medical bills. After two months they asked I report back to work but now I was doing less heavy work,” he claims. According to the man, his relationship with his employer had deteriorated. He claims they started accusing him of stealing things at work. “It was just a way of firing me I guess because I never stole the items they accused me of. I repeatedly asked them to show me proof that I stole them. There was nothing. Eventually, they fired me,” he claims.
After being fired, Moyo reported his employer to the labour offices. He says since then he has been sent from pillar to post. He is now unemployed and his family has been destroyed. According to a letter from the Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe dated January 16, 2022, directed to the Permanent Secretary for Labour and Home Affairs and the Regional Labour Office 1, the Zimbabweans are ‘asking’ for the intervention of government. “Reference is made to the case lodged with your office by a Zimbabwean national, Mr Thulani Moyo in July 2021, in which he seeks assistance to be compensated by a Gaborone-based company Wastic Science and Technology (Pty) Ltd t/a Kalahari Bricks for an injury sustained during the cause of duty.
The embassy is very grateful for your intervention then but unfortunately, Mr Moyo has since approached us indicating that he has not yet received the relief he was seeking, we therefore, humbly seek your further intervention,” read the letter in part. Moyo feels he is not getting assistance because he is a foreigner: “The truth in black and white is I was injured whilst on duty. I should be compensated.
My life has drastically changed as I can no longer work the way I used to. I go to bed hungry because of this since I can now only do lighter jobs. I constantly have to buy pain medication, but I don’t have the means to.” In the meantime, Moyo is pleading to any Good Samaritan to hire him for light jobs that he can do with one hand. Reached for comment, Kalahari Bricks manager, Raven Wang-Badinao refused to discuss the matter. Wang-Badinao feigned ignorance on the matter further saying he does not have an employee by the name of Moyo. Pressed further, the manager said: "I don't know what you are talking about. I don't want to discuss that."