WeeklySA_AdminDERELICTION: Gearhouse SA never registered a claim
By Ali Mphaki
Wanted! Almost three years later it is only this week that the department of employment and labour is trying to locate the family of the man who died while preparing the stage for the Global Citizen Mandela 100 concert which featured the likes of US superstar Beyonce.
And with all the resources at their disposal they seem to be struggling since they have pleaded with Weekly SA Mirror to share contact details of the grieving family.
This follows an article by Weekly SA Mirror last week where it was reported that the family of Siyabonga Ngonze, a rigger employed by top events company Gearhouse SA, were compensated with a meagre R70 000 for the death of their son who was on duty at the multimillion rand concert.
The concert was organised to honour the late former president Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday and presented by major partner, the Motsepe Foundation, with House of Mandela, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Nedbank, Vodacom, Big Concerts, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The 36-year-old Ngonze, who was fondly known as Siya, fell to his death while erecting scaffolds and installing lights at the FNB stadium two days before the event. What will come as a shock for the events and technical industry is that Gearhouse SA only notified the department about the incident but never registered a claim.
“Particulars in support of the claim have since been requested from the employer and the Compensation Fund is tracing the surviving dependents who will qualify in terms of COIDA to ascertain if there will be a need to process and pay a claim,” reads a statement from the department received Friday.
The department further denied earlier reports that the Ngonze family was paid R70 000.
“As far as our records are concerned, there was never a payment of R70 000 made by the Department/Compensation Fund to the family of the deceased,” said DG Thobile Lamati.
A grieving Thembekile Ngonze, the mother of Siya, says the family were given a paltry R39 000 by Gearhouse SA towards her son’s burial expenses.
She says when she subsequently contacted the company to ask if there was no further compensation for her son, a senior executive of the company is alleged to have said:
”Siya matter is closed. We’ve moved on”. Repeated attempts to obtain comment from Gearhouse SA drew a blank, with their executives Nasser Abbas and general manager Charl Smit not answering their cellphones.
A media inquiry sent to the company earlier in the week was also not responded to.
The department of employment and labour says following Siya’s fatal fall, inspectors were sent to investigate Gearhouse SA and the company was found to have failed to comply with the provisions of the Occupational Health Safety Act.
Lamati said they made recommendations to the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA, based at the Johannesburg Magistrates Court, and that they have since been informed that the NPA had decided not to prosecute. Industry players like the South African Roadies Association,SARA.
“It’s a free for all and everybody does as they please with no regard to black lives,” said Nyathela.
