Petrol attendant: ‘they are going where they belong’
"I am happy that justice was served and they are going where they belong"
POLOKWANE – These were the words of Johannes Monyela (31), the petrol attendant who was attacked by two men at a filling station in Tzaneen on 18 June.
The incident was caught on CCTV camera.
Published on YouTube June 21, 2016 by Mkhomazi Twala
“A red car pulled in with three occupants, I asked them what they needed and they said 93 unleaded petrol. I told them that we didn’t have the 93 and they said they will take the 95. As I went to the other side of the car to put in the petrol, the man on the passenger side started to insult me,” Monyela explains.
He says this is when things took a turn for the worst. He says he asked the man why he was insulting him and that is when he got out of the car.
“He started to poke me and continued to insult me. Before I knew it, he punched me and that is when I ran to the waiting area. Two of them followed me in and continued to beat me up.”
Monyela sustained injuries to his hand, leg and head.
“What touched me was that the driver was trying to stop the attack. He never participated, he was trying to stop them and protect me, but they overpowered him. I don’t have any bad feelings towards him,” he says.
The two men, Hermanus van Dyk (36) and Danie le Roux (27) pleaded guilty on all charges, and were yesterday sentenced by the Tzaneen Magistrate’s Court to two years and 18 months imprisonment respectively, with no option of a fine.
Magistrate Hellen Mabuza Mkansi ruled that the incident was a racial attack and nothing else.
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