The panel investigating the deaths of eight people during a fitness test for jobs with the Road Traffic Inspectorate has heard that applicants weren’t given bottled water.
|||Durban - No budget for bottled water was the reason eight people died in Pietermaritzburg during a fitness test for jobs with the Road Traffic Inspectorate.
This was the assertion of advocate Ravi Padayachee, SC, on Wednesday during a hearing of the commission of inquiry into the deaths of the job-seekers during a mass recruitment test in Pietermaritzburg in December 2012.
More than 30 000 people, over two days, were put through a fitness test.
Padayachee, appearing for the Department of Transport, said:
“Bottled water could not be provided for the event because of budget constraints. It was agreed in (the provincial) parliament that even government officials should no longer be given bottled water during meetings,” he said.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Finance Ina Cronjé announced earlier this year that the provincial government had to cut down on unnecessary spending.
Padayachee has completed cross-examining Pietermaritzburg woman Nomhlanhla Mlambo, who was one of those who ran the fitness test and collapsed afterwards. She was among more than 200 recruits who were taken to hospital suffering from severe dehydration and heat-related problems.
The issue of the water shortage was heavily debated during Mlambo’s testimony when she insisted that there had been no water for the crowd.
Padayachee’s response to the commission was that there were 56 taps at the stadium visible to the applicants.
On Wednesday, Padayachee attempted to go back over Mlambo’s evidence with the intention of showing how often she had “bent the truth with the aim of discrediting the Department of Transport”. However, Mlambo accused Padayachee of looking for anything to call her a liar.
The commission will continue on Monday.
The Mercury