Johannesburg - A Joburg man was left traumatised after “a crazed” motorist attacked him with an axe during an alleged road rage incident in Randburg.
“What the f**k are you doing? You should learn how to drive,” yelled the man driving alongside *Mandla, showing the middle finger at him.
“I showed him the middle finger back. He kept swearing at me, but I ignored him,” a 30-year-old Cosmo City man said, relating the Saturday afternoon incident on Malibongwe Drive in Randburg.
Mandla said he turned into Malibongwe Drive at about 1pm, when he realised that he was driving on the lane that road workers were still busy with. He changed lanes, but the motorist behind him started hooting.
Mandla said he did not know why the man was hooting as there was enough space for three cars between them.
“He overtook me and got into the lane next to me, and as my window was open, he started swearing at me.
The traffic light was red and Mandla stopped.
As he looked in his rearview and side mirrors, he saw the man stop behind him and get out of his car with an axe.
At the time, Mandla had already closed his window.
“He hit my window several times with the axe and it broke. I had glass all over my face from the shattered window. He started swinging the axe inside the car, trying to hit me, screaming and swearing at me.
“I was ducking from the blows of the axe when he struck my arm. I tried to flee. I put my car into reverse gear and hit his car. He then lost it, and started bashing my car with his axe,” Mandla said.
He put the car into first gear and fled the scene, driving as fast as he could, trying to get back onto the freeway.
But the axe-wielding man chased after him and stopped his car in front of Mandla’s just before the Beyers Naudé onramp.
“He again got out of the car with the axe and I also got out. He started hitting me with the axe, and as I was blocking the blows trying to take the axe from him, he hit me.
“He struck me on my head twice and I started bleeding. Blood was getting into my eyes and I could not see anything. But I managed to grab the axe and throw it on the ground. I held him in a tight grip and started hitting him,” Mandla said.
And while bleeding from the gashes on his head and with his car damaged, Mandla said paramedics who arrived at the scene simply ignored him, refusing to attend to him and focusing rather on the attacker, who was not injured..
François, who declined to give his surname, was one of the few motorists who stopped upon seeing the commotion. He said the two paramedics from Netcare 911 who arrived on the scene ignored the bleeding Mandla and went to assist the uninjured attacker.
In a video clip captured by François’s sister, the attacker’s raised voice can be heard as he and eyewitnesses exchanged swear words at the scene, with the paramedics intervening.
Later François points at the bleeding Mandla for the paramedics to assist.
Another voice says, “we are not shouting” and the paramedic says “I’ll take my sh*t and I’ll go”.
She then packs her equipment and leaves with her colleague.
ER24 paramedics later arrived and attended to Mandla.
François was shocked by the behaviour of the Netcare 911 paramedics. “It means if a white person and I need help, they will ignore me and go to treat the white person.
“There were two paramedics, and if one had gone to Mandla and the one to the white guy (the attacker), it would have made sense. But both of them went to the guy although he was not injured while Mandla was the one bleeding,” François said.
Police have confirmed that a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm was opened. No arrest had been made.
Netcare 911’s Shalen Ramduth said paramedics left without helping Mandla because they feared for their safety. “While trying to attend to the two injured individuals, they were harassed by a group of bystanders and were at risk