The incident occurred on Friday, November 28 at 23:55, when two bikers arrived at the Engen Garage on the corner of Louise and OR Tambo streets.
Petrol attendant, Mr Michael Mthobeni, was on duty that evening when two bikers stopped at pump number three.
They climbed off their bikes and asked Mthobeni to fill up with petrol.
Mthobeni said that he then noticed one of the men lit a cigarette close to the pump station. “I asked one of the men to move away from the pump as it is dangerous to smoke near a petrol pump,” said Mthobeni.
At this stage the men allegedly started swearing at Mthobeni, as he asked them to move to another pump since the one they had stopped at was out of order.
According to Mthobeni the bikers then made a phone call to a couple of friends as they were convinced that he was not willing to help them.
“Within minutes a blue Uno and a black Golf arrived at the petrol station,” said Mthobeni.
According to Mthobeni he then moved inside the store to avoid any more altercations with the men.
Three men then followed Mthobeni into the store and video footage shows them assaulting him.
One of the men climbed onto the counter, beating Mthobeni on the head.
The assault continued outside the shop, the police soon arrived on scene and the fight was eventually broken up.
Mthobeni was taken to a doctor the following day for a check-up.
Mr Dries Marx, owner of the garage, commented on the incident.
“This is a very sad moment for me, as my staff members were only doing their jobs when they asked them to move away from the pump. I don’t think it’s a racism incident at all, I think it was an alcohol related incident. The men acted out of order,” said Marx.
President of Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club, Mr Bees Swart, said that the club distances itself from the incident as only two of the men in the video are seen wearing official club colours.
“The rest of the men in the video are not from our club,” Swart said.
He said that the video, which has been widely circulated in print and television media, is out of context as video footage of the incident outside at the petrol pumps is not also shown.
“On Saturday morning we went to the Engen Garage and asked for the video material which shows the incident outside that led to the brawl inside. We were told that new cameras were installed and the manager did not know how to retrieve the footage to show us,” he said.
Swart said an internal investigation is being conducted within the club itself.
The video content was handed over to the police for further investigation and according to Mr Dries Marx Junior it was leaked from there.
“The police are busy with an investigation of the assault and we will also be investigating which police official leaked the video,” said Captain Eddie Hall spokesperson from Witbank SAPS.
Part of the leaked video footage as posted by Mail and Guardian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVL-MiJS1Yk
