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ACCIDENT: Degracia Mothupi sits and waits for help after her accident. Photo: Nokuthula Manyathi
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MANAGER:Manager of Ikweza at Wits, Lenie Ristow attends to Degracia Mothupi Photo: Nokuthula Manyathi
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POLICE: Metro police arrive on the scene. Photo: Nokuthula Manyathi
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CASE OPENED: Degracia Mothupi details what happened. Photo: Nokuthula Manyathi
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THE CALL: Driver of the motorbike Mduduzi Mnyanda makes a phone call to emergency services Photo: Nokuthula Manyathi
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MAINTENANCE: Mduduzi Mnyanda checks on his motobike. Photo: Nokuthula Manyathi
Wits cleaner Degracia Mothupi was walking along the pavement on Bertha Street when she was hit by a motorbike earlier today.
“I didn’t see anything but the Indian guy who saw everything said the bike nearly ran into him as well,” Mothupi said slowly in isiZulu.
Mothupi was on her way back from buying cakes and snacks for a Wits staff member’s birthday from Pick ‘n Pay, when she felt the motorbike ram into her from behind. She was flung a couple of meters into a near-by gutter. Pink and white cream was smeared on the side of the road and over her black uniform.
Injury
Mothupi had a deep gash above her right ankle and her groceries lay sprawled among torn plastic bags next to where she was sitting. Mothupi said the lady from the Nunnery who witnessed the entire incident told her sit down and not to move.
[pullquote]I don’t have a license but he was speeding[/pullquote]Paulina Ditshilwane volunteers at the Nunnery, said she was emptying her dustpan when she saw the accident as it happened. She said Mothupi as well as a Wits student were walking along the pavement. She said the biker just missed the student and hit Mothupi.
“I don’t have a license but he was speeding”
“I don’t have a license but he was speeding.” She said he should not have hit Mothupi because she was walking on the pavement. Mothupi complained of pain in her left shoulder but said she was “fine”. Paramedics treated her on the spot and eventually loaded her into the ambulance after necessary forms had been filled out by Mothupi’s manager and supervisor. The driver of the motorbike Mduduzi Mnyanda said the accident was not his fault.
He said he was trying to avoid a pedestrian who had dashed in front of him when Mothupi appeared as well and he hit her.“A coloured guy crossed the street. I tried to avoid him then she (Mothupi) followed and I hit her.” An employee of a courier services Mnyanda said Mothupi was in the street when he hit her.
He suffered scrapes and bruises on his knees and knuckles. He said it was the first accident he had been in the six years since joining his company. Mothupi was taken to Milpark Hospital for further treatment.
