The family of a man from Driefontein, Thongathi, is looking for answers, following the incident of his death at work on Saturday, said to have been hit by a tractor.
Mr Pat Mthembu (54) who hails from this area, is said to have been hit by a tractor at a tractor storage area on a sugar cane farm.
According to a relative who asked not to be named, Mthembu received a phone call from home and was told to hurry to work.
The relative says that they were told that when he arrived he started working in the fields as usual, before he was called to the tractor storage area, to change the carts for the two.
“They said that’s when one tractor hit him and he died,” said a relative.
We said that what confuses them is that they found his body near the wheel of the tractor, but did not press it.
“What was noticed is that the head, which was leaning on the wheel of the tractor, had nothing to show that it had walked on him. All we saw was blood coming out of the mouth,” said the relative.
We said that they had information that when he works with tractors, he has a second colleague, who he works with.
“When we asked where he was with him when the incident happened, the chief and his assistant, they said he was alone. This confused us because it has never happened before,” we said.
We said that one of the things that puzzled them was that the handbrake of the tractor was high, which shows that it was not easy to make a mistake that the tractor just went by itself and pressed him.
“Even these carts that he used to change are not bad before, they become bad at the back. The question is if he was attacked by a shopper while changing carts, why was he injured in the front part of the tractor, but not in the back,” said the relative.
We said that they suspected that he was killed, and he was taken to be placed next to the wheel of a tractor.
“These explanations they say do not match. What they say, and what we want, do not match,” we say.
We went on to say that they want the police to investigate the incident in detail and arrest them.
“We want his chief as well as the foreman to be questioned. They are the ones we want to give clear answers because the incident happened in their presence,” said the relative.
We said that the deceased had never reported that there were any problems he was facing at work. He revealed that he was living inside the compound with other workers and had been working on the farm for three years.
The KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson, Captain Ntathu Ndlovu, said the police in Mhlali have registered the death of a person following the incident that happened in Waterfall, in Thongathi.