Port Elizabeth – A former security guard from Despatch in the Eastern Cape is cautiously hopeful after the Port Elizabeth High court ordered that Shoprite Checkers pay damages after he fell and injured himself on a slippery floor at the butchery section of the premises in 2011.
According to court documents, Gideon Kemp was employed by Bidvest Magnum Security, and was working at Shoprite Checkers in Despatch in accordance with a contract between the two companies.
Court documents cite that at the time of the incident, Kemp was instructed by Shoprite Checkers floor manager to assist at the receiving gate at the butchery section of the store. According to Kemp this did not form part of his duties as a security guard and he was merely helping out as the person responsible was not available.
Kemp took a few steps en route to the gate near the cargo hold and then fell and slipped because of a fatty, wet substance which appeared to be part of the tile.
Since the inception of the court case, Shoprite Checkers has our right denied any responsibility.
It previously emerged that the substance appeared to come from sausages or meat products made in the butchery.
On Thursday the court essentially found that Shoprite was negligent in that the floor was not dry on the day of the incident. The court further found that Shoprite should have forseen that someone entering the butchery could have slipped resulting in possible injury.
Testimony provided by the floor manager was rejected by the court on the basis of contradiction and unreliability while testimony from Kemp was found to be consistent.
Kemp’s lawyer Wilma van der Bank still has to go back to court to prove the amount her client has suffered in damages.
The former security guard’s lawyers are claiming more than R1.1 million.
They claim that Kemp has suffered damages amounting to around R120 000 for past medical expenses, future medical expenses at R75 000, past loss of income at around R52 000, future loss of income at around R637 000 and general damages of R250 000.
Speaking to the African News Agency (ANA) on Friday, 47-year old Kemp was coincidentally at the pharmacy fetching pain medication.
He has since been unemployed and said that he was “very hopeful” following the judgement but added that it would still take a long time for anything to come from the case.
In the mean time he was homeless and despite ongoing attempts to find work, has been unemployed for almost five years, only finding part time work on an occasional basis.
“My right ankle is the problem and in winter the pain is at its worst. I can’t stand for long periods of time, and sometimes my foot will swell if I’m wearing shoes,” he said.
“This has impacted on my life very badly. I am losing almost everything, I have to sell stuff like furniture to put food on the table, I just had to sell my stove,” said Kemp.
An emotional Kemp said that the worst part was feeling that he had just been a number to the company.
“I feel so bad, like they did not value me. I worked honestly. Not once has Shoprite phoned me to find out how I am doing, about my injury. it makes me feel so bad like I am nothing,”
He said he had been a security guard for more than 13 years and simply wanted to be employed again but the injury and the law suit was scaring off potential employers.
“As soon as a company hears I have an injury, or an ongoing case with Shoprite, they turn me away and say that I should wait until the case is over,” he said.
African News Agency
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