VIP driver punched in KZN crash

2008-05-24 22:57

Durban - A motorcyclist punched a KwaZulu-Natal provincial VIP driver on Saturday afternoon for driving into to back of another car and seriously injuring its occupant near Pietermaritzburg.

KwaZulu-Natal transport spokesperson Rajen Chinaboo, confirming the accident on the N3 near Camperdown, said Road Traffic Inspectorate officials at the scene reported that there "had been some sort of altercation".

However, he could not provide any details.

Sapa has learnt that moments after the accident a motorcyclist - who had apparently earlier been forced aside by the VIP Mazda 6 vehicle flashing its blue light - stopped at the accident scene and punched the driver before getting back onto his bike and driving off.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Henry Budhram confirmed that a VIP vehicle had been involved in an accident and that one person had been injured.

He said that he could "not confirm the altercation" but the circumstances surrounding the accident would be investigated.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said that paramedics at the accident scene reported that an eyewitness had stopped at the accident scene and also told police about the altercation at the scene.

Jaws of life

The driver of the Fiat Palio was trapped and the jaws of life were used to cut him free. He was taken to St Anne's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.

The VIP unit usually transports the province's MECs, but the VIP driver on Saturday was not escorting anyone according to paramedics at the accident scene.

In April 2007 the Witness newspaper reported that its switchboard was flooded with calls from motorists who said they were pushed off the N3 by a blue-light convoy, identified as being that of ANC president Jacob Zuma.

It also reported at the time that a Pietermaritzburg man, Faizel Mooideen, had a rifle pointed at him and his family by security officers who tried to push them off a lane on the highway.

At the end of the same month a motorist used his cellphone to provide the newspaper with video footage of KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele's convoy doing 160 kilometres an hour on the N3.

KwaZulu-Natal's transport MEC Bheki Cele later accused the motorist of being "a self-made, arrogant, non-accountable individual who purports to be a good citizen and I will dare to argue that he is also a racist".

He said at the time the motorist who filmed the convoy speeding at 160km/h had broken the law. Repeated demands to have the newspaper hand over the motorist's name were rejected by the newspaper.

Camperdown is about 25km from Pietermaritzburg.

- SAPA