Article by: Emma Clayfield
Bloody scenes and broken mugs is what customers at the Food Lovers Market were met by on Saturday afternoon, as an elderly woman was allegedly assaulted by one of the stores employees over a vegetable combo special.
According to eyewitnesses on the scene, the supervisor aggressively approached the counter where the elderly lady had commenced with paying for her goods and engaged in confrontation with the customer over an item that was listed on the special.
The supervisor allegedly verbally assaulted the elderly lady, threatening to physically assault the customer and said there was no butternut listed on the special outside and should have it removed from her trolley even after the customer had shown the store manager a picture of the special that was displayed outside.
The supervisor continued to threaten the customer and pushed her trolley of goods towards her in order to reach the customer and physically assault her.
The lady who was traveling with her son and daughter to buy vegetables, was met with an unexpected confrontation where an aggressive employee scarred her for life with a mug.
The son and daughter allegedly left their mother for a few minutes to collect their vehicle from one parking bay and bring it around so that the lady wouldn’t have to walk far with her trolley of goods after paying, when they came back to a devastating scene of their mother gushing blood.
The children rushed the profusely bleeding lady to the nearest Hospital for medical attention.
The lady apparently begged for help from the manager, yelling that she was a chronic medication patient who suffers from thrombosis. The manager allegedly stood there helplessly and didn’t offer any urgent medical assistance nor took down the victims details for further assistance.
An eyewitness informed UpdateSA that she had called the Emergency Services and the police to the scene as all employee were I’ll informed about what procedure to follow in such circumstances.
She was later provided with a reference number by the South African Police Services and emergency services. The witness who would like to remain unnamed said she had never seen so much blood gushing from a person and felt as though should the lady have not been rushed to the hospital would’ve bled to death.
The witness also confirmed that the lady was only attended to and urgently assisted by customers.
Witnesses say the son was enraged by the bloody scenes of his brutally assaulted mother and ensued to chase the perpetrator who attacked his mother as she fled the store as soon as she saw him entering the store, with his pregnant wife.
When questioned “Pinky” said she slashed the customers face with a mug because the customer tried hitting her with a cucumber over their argument. She said she was not initially assisting the customer but she came to the front counter to find out who this customer was and why she was making a fuss over a vegetable combo that did not exist.
The perpetrator was not arrested on the scene as the police officers advised the customers family that since the lady has left the scene she would need to come to the police station herself and open a case and would not be arresting the employee as they need to hear her side of the story.
The police officers refused to provide the injured customers family a J88 medical form to hand to the victim, saying she would need to come collect it herself.
In a conversation with another witness, UpdateSA was informed that police that responded to the scene were friends of one of the store managers and would often visit the store for goods or to see some of ladies that work in the store on a daily basis.
The UpdateSA team has not been successful in reaching the store nor the Food Lovers Market head office for comment.
The store employees refused to speak to us nor give any comment on the matter.
This is a developing story…
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