Fields Hill truck owner faces justice
Driver Sanele May pleased employer is called to court
FINALLY, justice is being done. So said Sanele May, the driver of the truck that caused the 2013 Field’s Hill accident in which 24 people were killed.
He was reacting to the news that his former boss, Gregory Govender, is now being summoned to court.
Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, spokeswoman for the National Prosecuting Authority, said she was not in a position to comment about the charges Govender would face. However, a hot topic throughout May’s case was the truck’s alleged poor condition.
“I am being punished for my actions but it is time he faces the court,” said May who is serving an eight year, 10 month sentence. He pleaded guilty to charges of culpable homicide, fraud, entering South Africa illegally, being in possession of fake driving licences, operating a vehicle without a valid professional driving permit, and failing to comply with a road traffic sign.
May answered questions posed to him by The Independent on Saturday via Peach Piche, founder of the Sanele May Support Group, who visited him in Umzinto Prison on Youth Day. May has been incarcerated since the accident on September 5, 2013, first awaiting trial and after his conviction in the Durban High Court in November 2014.
May said Govender could have acted differently after the accident. “He should’ve shown remorse to the families and genuine support for me. He never even visited me and he blamed me.”
May said nobody investigating Govender’s case had approached him.
Also pleased to see the wheels of justice moving are Kloof domestic worker Zodwa Cele whose daughter, Zinhle, was killed, and Hillcrest High School teacher Ntombi Duma, one of scores of people who were injured. The two visited May about a year after he was sentenced to hear more about what happened and to tell him they forgave him.
“I never knew what had happened. I never talked to the driver, so I decided to go and see Sanele,” said Cele. “I was angry, to be honest. When I got there, he was crying. We got emotional. It was not easy.”
Cele said that as a parent, she realised that even her own son could have found himself in May’s circumstances had he been offered a job as the driver of a vehicle whose condition was unknown.
She also noted that May, who is from Swaziland, is an orphan.
“So, I had to forgive him with my whole heart,” said Cele. “After that a heavy burden was lifted off my shoulders. But just because I have forgiven Sanele it does not mean the pain is not still there.”
Cele said her daughter’s two children who lived with her missed their mother, especially on their birthdays.
She did not wish to talk about Govender other than to say “I am angry about him”.
Duma, who was injured, said visiting May – with Cele and Karen Janisch, the founder of another group, Fields Hill Helping Hands – was important for both him and her to be able to get on with their lives.
She hoped that in the future traffic laws would be taken more seriously.
May himself recalled the visit.
“We were all in tears when we met,” he said. “It was such a special moment especially when they said they forgave me and I said I felt bad for all the pain I caused, I never intended to hurt anyone and their forgiveness meant so much.”