“He was the 37th patient on the list needing emergency assistance and transportation to the hospital. The hospital told us to hire a car to get him to the clinic.”
These were the words of Susan Leshola, the owner of the yard in Sonderwater where a 29-year-old Lesotho national was stabbed in the head and later died of his injuries in hospital.
She describes how the builder and his four friends, also from Lesotho, had carried beers onto her property that Saturday morning. They had been drinking together until the host fell asleep.
“One of the men started searching him. He woke up, and asked: “What are you doing?” That is when the fight ensued. Three of the men started throwing stones at him and the other one stabbed him in the head. The first three ran away, leaving the other one to clean the blood stains off the floor.
I called an ambulance, but the hospital told me there were none available.” According to the district fleet manager, Patrick Diale, the Tlokwe sub-district has a total of five ambulances, one of which is currently in for a service. While he admits that the area’s response and rescue vehicle is also in for a service, he says the 22-seater planned patient transport (PPT) for non-emergency patients is in running order. According to the Tlokwe website, Potchefstroom has a population of 250 000.
As earlier reported in the Midweek, Const. Kelebogile Trom, the SAPS spokesperson says the deceased’s younger brother received a call from one of the witnesses at 10:00 on Saturday to say he had been stabbed. On arrival, he found him semi-conscious but unable to talk. He was taken to the hospital and died on Sunday.
Betty Sentsho describes the deceased who was also her tenant as a quiet, peaceful person.
“He stayed on my property with his younger brother for six years and has never started a fight. I saw him as my son because of his respect and his quiet demeanor. His family was his first priority and he sometimes skipped on paying rent just to send money to his three children and wife back in Lesotho for food and clothes. His younger brother later paid on his behalf,” she said.
According to WO Ishmael Mohutsiwa of Ikageng SAPS, the police are still looking for the suspect. One of the neighbours says the person who stabbed him is hiding in Vereeniging. The deceased was buried in Lesotho last Saturday.
