An Emergency Medical Rescue Services manager tried to stop a deadly KZN Road Traffic Inspectorate fitness test, an inquiry heard.
|||Pietermaritzburg - An Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) manager tried to stop a deadly KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) fitness test, an inquiry heard on Wednesday.
"She (transport department official Sindi Zwane) said they do not take orders from doctors," EMRS sub-district manager Sibusiso Dlamini said in Pietermaritzburg.
"She said she would consult the MEC, everything that was going on was in their hands."
He was testifying before a commission of inquiry probing the deaths of eight people who took part in a four kilometre run at the city's Harry Gwala Stadium.
He became emotional, crying while giving evidence. Dlamini said he tried to stop the fitness test on the first day, December 27, at a meeting between EMRS and transport department officials at 2.30pm. This was because many of the participants had collapsed and local hospitals were overflowing.
The test formed part of a fitness test for RTI job applicants. More than 34 000 people qualified to apply for 90 advertised RTI trainee posts. Of these, 15 600 attended a fitness test on December 27, and a similar number on December 28.
"After the meeting I left, went to sit down next to the gate and cried," Dlamini said.
"What was painful is that most of the runners were black, our people."
At the meeting, some people agreed the test should be stopped, but others disagreed as they felt that the process had already started, he said. Dlamini said an argument in favour of continuing was that some people had come from afar.
"On our side, EMRS, we were concerned about the people who could eventually die or get seriously ill. Our idea was not to look at the point that people had come from afar."
Ravenda Padayachee, for the provincial transport department, said its employees would testify there was a debate during the meeting of views for and against stopping the event. The resolution to continue with the fitness test after 3pm was taken as a collective.
Dlamini replied: "I would not say there was an agreement. Our side will distance itself from the agreement because we put it clearly that if the event resumed, people will die."
Dlamini said another reason given to resume the fitness test was that positions for RTI officers had to be filled.
Padayachee asked Dlamini if he had heard the participants clapping and shouting, indicating happiness when the announcement that the fitness test would resume was made.
"No, I did not," he said.
Padayachee said a transport department employee would testify it was as if Kaizer Chiefs had scored a goal against Orlando Pirates.
"I cannot dispute that, but I did not hear such," Dlamini said.
Dlamini said things were chaotic when the test resumed.
"When groups had to take off at the gate, some people fell because they were pushing each other."
He described the participants as being dehydrated, deluded, and hysterical.
"Others were doing things that were not understandable. They were pulling their hair and taking off their clothes," Dlamini said.
He told the commission there was not sufficient light at the stadium as paramedics worked until 11pm on December 27.
The inquiry continues.
Sapa