Blood flows at Truckhire
Innocent Selatlhwa | Friday December 18, 2015 16:28
The warehouse manager, known only as Ramos, was rushed to an unnamed private hospital while Kagiso Motlhabane, the driver, was rushed to Old Naledi Clinic where he left with a huge plaster on his head.
Narrating the story, Pitso Mmea, Zachariah Seetapele and Kebitseng Sebalusu who have also been fired, said Motlhabane had come to demand a salary and exit package that he believes the company owed him. The encounter turned nasty when he was told he would not get anything.
“At first he was speaking to Smith who told him, “f*%k you” as he (Motlhabane) demanded his money. He retaliated and they started fighting. Ramos then came and grabbed a battery cable with a metal plate end and hit Motlhabane on the head,” Mmea said.
He went on to state that Motlhabane went into the warehouse and grabbed a metal rod, which he used to also hit Ramos on the head before the two men were rushed to respective medical centres.
Meawhile, Sebalusu also revealed that he fought another manager last week and has since been fired for the fight. “He gave me a van to use and later insulted me and started a fight with me. I fought back and I have now lost my job,” Sebalusu said. Contacted for comment, Truck Hire general manager, Kevin Lees, said Motlhabane assaulted his three employees. “An employee we fired for theft came here and attacked three of our employees. One of them is badly injured and currently hospitalised. We have since reported the matter to the police,” he said.
On the issue of monies owed to the sacked employees, Lees would not comment, stating that the former employees gave wrong information. He would not be pressured to present his version. Neither would Lees be questioned further on the matter as he said it was now a case before the police. Acting Station Commander for Old Naledi Police Station Assistant Superintendent Meshack Dambuza confirmed receiving the report. “We are investigating a case in which two employees of Truck Hire exchanged blows and both ended up with bad injuries,” he said. Dambuza said they are yet to establish who is at fault as their investigations are at an initial stage.
It is not the first time the company made it into the news with a similar issue. Recently a union leader, Kgomotso Panye, alleged assault at the hands of some of the managers at the company while he was seeking recognition of the union at the company. Employees at the company decry a poor working environment. “The bosses insult us, they overwork us, they do not allow us to use the only toilet at the premises and we also do not have access to clean drinking water,” one of the employees lamented. But Lees has since rubbished all these. Lees declined to discuss the recent incidents saying he has filed a case of defamation against the unionist.