Kimberley - The Kimberley police have opened an inquest into the death of an employee of Eco Car Wash in Schmidtsdrift Road after he was apparently electrocuted on Tuesday morning at around 9am.
It is believed that he was shocked by a live cable while washing a vehicle with the use of high water pressure machinery and he sustained fatal injuries.
People on the scene said that the deceased was originally from Lesotho and had been working at the car wash for the past three years.
Police spokesperson Captain Tessa Jansen said that the identity of the deceased had yet to be confirmed.
“We cannot confirm his nationality as we will have to wait for someone to come and identify the body. The age of the deceased could not be established, because no identification documents could be found,” said Jansen.
She said that police questioned the owner of the car wash on the particulars of the deceased’s personnel file.
“He said that he ‘inherited’ the deceased from the previous owner with no personal information on file. We tried to call the contact numbers on the deceased’s cellphone, but no one answered.”
Jansen added that the cause of death was under investigation.
The previous owner of the car wash indicated that he did not know the deceased.