Answers on mystery Department of Labour wreck, yet some questions remain

MBOMBELA – Three months after Lowvelder first spotted a wrecked car with the Department of Labour’s signage on it in the Nedbank parkade, an official has finally explained how it got there.

On Wednesday morning the department’s Mr Tony Mphahlele arrived at the offices of Lowveld Media. In his hands was one of the dozen media queries that Lowvelder had submitted since December.

In the media queries, our journalist explained that the wreck of a Polo Vivo sedan had somehow ended up in the parkade – presumably with the assistance of a flatbed truck.

The paper wanted to know whether the car had been in an accident, whether the department was aware of the incident, and who the driver had been. The journalist also asked what procedures had to be followed when government vehicles – an asset paid for by taxpayers’ money – were involved in accidents, and whether these had been followed.

After Lowvelder‘s questions remained unanswered for weeks, a visit to the city’s departmental offices proved that employees were well aware of the queries. This was evidenced by a copy of an article on the mystery car that had been stuck to a wall in the offices. Yet nobody from the Mbombela or eMalahleni offices was available to speak to the publication.

When Mphahlele, eMalahleni’s communications officer, arrived on Wednesday, he was surprised to hear that the paper had been unable to reach him on his landline. He vowed to look into what might have been wrong with his office’s telephones. He confirmed some details of the story regarding the wreck.

“Firstly, I confirm that the car was in an accident. Nobody was killed,” he said. Mphahlele was unable to recall when the accident had occurred. A report made available to Lowvelder stated that it was on October 17, and that it occurred on the N4. He could not confirm who the driver was, or whether he or she had been transporting any passengers at the time of the accident.

According to Mphahlele, the department’s transport policy requires that wrecks be transported to its premises after motor-vehicle accidents. “We rent office space from the building that faces the Nedbank parkade. In terms of our rental agreement, parking in the parkade is included in our rental,” he said. “Therefore, we were not only allowed to park the wreck where we did, but we were obliged to do so until the insurers were done assessing it,”

Mphahlele could not explain why the insurer took three months to assess the vehicle. Lowvelder previously reported that the wreck had been removed from the parkade on Saturday January 16. Mphahlele did not know where it had been towed to.

“What I do know is that we are not liable for any accumulated parking money,” he said.

When a government car is in an accident, a case of reckless and negligent driving must be investigated.   Mphahlele said he did not know whether in fact such a case had been opened. He undertook to provide clarity on all the grey areas surrounding the issue on Wednesday, but had failed to do so by the time we went to print. Meanwhile, provincial spokesman Sgt Geral Sedibe said no case had been opened involving the crashed car. Lowvelder will continue to unravel the intriguing mystery for readers.

On January 21, Lowvelder reported:

MBOMBELA – The wrecked government vehicle that seemed to have been hidden in the city’s Nedbank parkade has been removed. However, when, remains a mystery.

Eyewitnesses’ accounts vary from Saturday to Tuesday and to Thursday last week. It’s been five weeks since Lowvelder first queried this peculiar finding in the city’s CBD.

“Please confirm whether the vehicle was in an accident?” and “Why has it not been taken to the scrapyard?” still remain unanswered. A photo of what was left of the Polo Vivo sedan accompanied the media query.

The car had Department of Labour signage on it and was covered in dents. Its windows were broken and its wheels crooked and deflated. It had clearly overturned before it was dropped off in the parkade. A veil of secrecy was drawn over the incident. A sticker on its rear end invited the newspaper to call the department’s fraud hotline.

“Send an email to Arrive Alive with your query,” advised the voice on the line coolly. The journalist obliged but received no reply for a month. Last Wednesday afternoon, an email from Arrive Alive confirmed that the query was forwarded to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). The RTMC is responsible for road-traffic management where government is concerned, and has not yet replied.

A visit to the department’s Facebook page was fruitless. None of the journalist’s repeated pleas for assistance received as much as a “like”. Two weeks ago, Lowvelder tried another department. The Department of Public Works’ Mr Molatelo Mohwasa said the vehicle was not his department’s responsibility. When an empty parking space was discovered where the wreck used to be, a call to parkade director Mr Hannes Botha of Karabo parking confirmed that he had not been responsible for the removal.

The journalist interrogated parkade assistants and security guards who chose to remain anonymous and were mysteriously struck by amnesia. Nobody could remember exactly when the vehicle had been removed.

“Someone towed it last Thursday,” one woman said. “No, it was on Monday or Tuesday,” said another. A security guard was certain that it was towed on Saturday. “I saw it myself,” he said, but could not say who towed it, and referred the newspaper to the city’s Department of Labour office. CCTV footage of the removal could apparently not be provided without Nedbank Centre management’s permission and that of the Department of Labour.

Lowvelder’s previous report on the issue was stuck against the department’s office wall. Employees acknowledged that a Department ofLabour car was parked in the parkade, but said they were not allowed to comment on the issue.

They did not deny the comment made by an informed source that the department had been renting a parking spot from Karabo parking and that they would therefore not be liable for R917 in parking fees. On Wednesday Botha said this remained to be confirmed.

That afternoon a seemingly baffled acting spokesman, Mr Mokgadi Pela, answered Lowvelder’s phone call for the first time in five weeks. “I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said when confronted with the facts. The journalist referred him to several messages sent to him, to which he did not reply. He said he had a meeting to attend and would respond to the paper’s queries by Thursday morning. No reply has been received.

On January 11, Lowvelder reported:

MBOMBELA – Interesting things happen in the city’s CBD. Pamphlets promising the enlargement of many a body part get shoved into your hands on every street corner.
Herbal mutis that promised to cure almost every ailment are freely available and every now and then a taxi stops dead in front of you, causing you to relive your life in a flash. One does not stop and stare as everything around there holds some element of surprise.

On November 10 a scene in the Nedbank parkade gave this journalist a reason to stop and stare. On the first level stood a wreck. It is hard to believe that it got there without the assistance of a flatbed truck.

What was left of a Volkswagen Polo Vivo sedan had been parked on the first floor. It stood on deflated, crooked wheels, so it could not have been driven there.

The car’s windows were shattered and it was covered in dents. It had clearly rolled multiple times. This vehicle belonged to the Department of Labour. Lowvelder sent media queries and photos of the wreck to the department.

“Who was the designated driver of the vehicle?” and “When did the accident take place?” the paper wanted to know, but received no reply.

A more direct: “Please confirm whether the vehicle was in an accident?” did not get any response either.

The same went for: “Why has it not been taken to the scrapyard?”

A visit to the parkade confirmed that it was still standing there on Wednesday.

Overnight parking costs R27. To date whoever parked the car there is liable for parking fees amounting to R1 566.

Mr Hannes Botha is the director of Karabo parking and responsible for the Nedbank parkade.

He lives in Gauteng and traveled to Mbombela on Friday to address the issue.

“We will have to get someone to assist us in removing it from the building. As soon as it is out of the parkade and on the street, it becomes the responsibility of the traffic department, but it is a situation that people don’t generally want to get involved in,” said Botha.