Disabled parking dispute turns ugly

A former mayor of KwaDukuza was involved in a scuffle with an elderly lady at the Ballito Lifestyle Centre last week after she asked him to move from a disabled parking bay.

Sixty-year-old Ballito resident Linda Harris, who is on crutches following an operation, remonstrated with the driver of a silver Mercedes who had parked in a disabled bay near the Superspar and was eating lunch.

“I asked him why he was parked in the disabled parking bay if he was not disabled and asked him to leave, so that the space could be used by actual disabled people,” she said.

When the man refused to move, she took pictures of him and his car with her cellphone. He demanded that she delete the pictures but when she walked away he leapt out of the car and tried to wrestle the phone away from her.

Councillor Thulani Khuluse, a former mayor and current speaker of the borough council, said he believed he was entitled to park in the bay.

“As far as I was concerned, I was allowed to park in this bay, because my mother is old (she is 83) and relies on a walking stick and therefore I did not think this lady had any right to insist that I get out of the parking bay,” he said. “When she took a photo of me, I lost my cool. She has no right to take a photo of me and it infuriated me when she did it,” said Khuluse.

He said that he asked her to delete the photo, but she refused. He jumped out of his car and tried to take the phone away from her. Harris said that he had manhandled her in the process and she had suffered bruising as a result.

Eyewitness Megan Bellamy said Khuluse had followed them when she tried to help Harris to her car.

“He grabbed her crutch and held it up against her shoulders and neck and tried to grab her phone,” said Bellamy. Both Harris and Bellamy screamed in shock and a man driving past hooted loudly.

In that moment, Khuluse let go of Harris, got back into his car and drove off.

“I did not hit her, I just wanted to get the phone from her,” he said.

Shopowner Sashin Moodley from Cell C also saw the assault and said he was disgusted by Khuluse’s behaviour.

“It was terrible to see an old lady in crutches being treated so badly, while this perfectly healthy man was occupying the disabled parking,” said Moodley.

Asked why she had tried to get Khuluse to leave the bay, Harris said: “There are so few disabled parking bays and to then have people who are not disabled to park there is disrespectful and shameful.”

According to QuadPara Association of SA CEO Ari Seirlis, parking bays for the disabled are reserved for people in wheelchairs.

“If you see someone misusing a wheelchair demarcated parking bay, please take a photo (ensuring the vehicle registration is clear and the wheelchair parking sign is visible) and WhatsApp it to 0738539675 including the location, date and time and QASA will take it up with the offender,” he said.

The Lifestyle Centre management declined to comment on the incident.