A MISCOMMUNICATION with a petrol attendant at the Engen garage in Shongweni led to the alleged assault of 17-year-old Devashen Govender by a security guard on Saturday 10 August.
According to Govender, he arrived at the garage at 6.30pm in the evening after attending a braai in the Hammarsdale area with a group of six friends.
“We were on our way to drop our friends off at their homes and the driver, Darren Reddy (21), asked the petrol attendant to fill the tank with R50 green. She was washing our windows and we just assumed that she had the petrol pump on automatic during that time. I looked back and saw the meter was sitting on R583 and some change,” said Govender.
The driver then called over the attendant and alerted her to the situation. The security guard arrived moments later and asked them to move the car into a designated parking area on the premises.
“The security guard was making racist remarks. Reddy exited the car and demanded to speak to the manager,” said Govender.
After speaking with the manager, Govender said Reddy returned to the car and told the rest of the passengers that they had to pay for the petrol and handed Govender the keys to the vehicle. At this stage all of the passengers were standing around the vehicle.
“The manager told the security guard to take the keys to the car and he came straight for me. He grabbed my throat with his left hand, pushed me against the car and squeezed my throat. He threatened to kill me if I did not hand over the keys. He started to throttle me and I have asthma which only made things worse. The security guard took the keys from my right hand,” said Govender.
He said the security guard made his way back to the entrance to the store at the garage after getting hold of the keys .
“One of my friends did run after the security guard and hit him across the back with an open hand, yelling that he wasn’t allowed to do such things. The security guard replied that he could,” said Govender.
Govender said he phoned his sister and asked her to bring the balance for the outstanding petrol bill.
“I arrived at the garage 10 minutes later and paid for the bill. When I asked the security guard why he assaulted my brother, he just laughed,” said Govender’s sister Maxine.
They drove to the Hillcrest SAPS after the incident and attempted to open a case of assault where they were advised by one of the officers on duty to rather resolve the matter with the owner of the garage instead of opening a case.
“What the officer was telling us made it seem utterly pointless to open a case. Now we can’t even rely on the police for help,” said Govender.
According to Leuitenant France Mkhize, the communications officer for the Hillcrest SAPS, the officer on duty said that they could open a case. “Due to the nature of the slow court process and that the family was worried about Devashen having to appear in court while he should be studying for matric, he offered other options they could look at to attempt to resolve the issue,” said Mkhize.
Tania Landsberg, the group communications manager for the Corporate Affairs Division of Engen Petroleum Limited responds:
Apparently the carload of people pulled arrived and asked for the vehicle to be filled up. The pump attendant did this and then they said they only asked for R50. They were asked to move the vehicle to a parking space in order to resolve the matter. Apparently they then jumped out of the car and were unruly and abusive towards the manager at which point security intervened and retained the keys. They were then given the opportunity to phone someone to pay for the petrol they had requested. However, for the entire time they remained abusive and unruly. As I say, this is all hearsay and each side has a different story to tell. I can only reiterate that we do not tolerate abusive or untoward behaviour by those working for, or representing our brand.
