Johannesburg - A speeding driver knocked down a pedestrian, severing his leg. As the badly injured man lay on the ground, the driver picked him up and threw him down the slope on the side of the road, before fleeing the scene when he saw a witness approach.
The accident happened at about 3am on Sunday near Diepkloof Extension, Soweto.
Moments before the incident, Simnikiwe Xhala - who witnessed it - had left work and was walking home to Diepkloof, when a car zoomed past. It was travelling at high speed, he said.
The Honda Ballade flew past him, but the driver appeared to lose control while negotiating a bend.
The accident victim, Lebogang Silindane, was also walking home to Diepkloof when he was struck.
The 21-year-old earlier visited his sister in Winchester Hills. They had an argument and Silindane went to bed. He woke up in the early hours still seething and decided he was better off sleeping at home.
Silindane was walking on the side of the road in Diepkloof when he was hit by the car, which dragged him a few metres.
Speaking from his hospital bed, he said that after the car hit him, he saw the driver approaching.
“When he picked me up, I thought he was helping me, but he threw me over over the barrier on the other side of the road. He stood there watching me. He wanted to see whether I would move. I did not and just kept quiet, because I thought he would probably kill me,” he said.
The ambulance never arrived, but the Diepkloof police did. And the driver returned with a tow-truck driver to pick his car up.
Silindane’s mother, Refilwe, said that when she got there, her son was lying on his back, the lower part of his left leg missing.
Refilwe said police officers were not helpful. She said the Diepkloof officers who arrived refused to assist, saying the suburb was out of their precinct.
“One said it was not his area, it was a Mondeor case, and that I should call 112. When I said to him, ‘Aren’t you supposed to help?’, he replied ‘Just because I’m wearing uniform doesn’t mean I have to help everyone’.”
Xhala said Refilwe burst into tears when the officers indicated they were doing them a favour.
Refilwe’s brother and Xhala bundled Silindane into the car and took him to hospital.
The police left and the driver departed in the tow truck, according to Refilwe.
Refilwe, her daughter, sister and brother-in-law searched for Silindane’s leg but couldn’t find it. They went to Diepkloof police station to open a case.
Refilwe said the officers in the police station refused to help, saying they were knocking off.
A metro police officer who arrived later intervened, and only then did they receive assistance.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini of the provincial police said on Wednesday the head of detectives in Diepkloof had ordered a thorough investigation.
“The provincial inspectorate office is attending to all the allegations
,” he said.
The police obtained a name and registration plates of the car involved in the incident. The Star is withholding them.
The Star