Dog attack: Man gets legal aid

2004-01-19 11:06

Sizwe samaYende

Mookgopong (Naboomspruit) - A farm labourer who has been bound to a wheelchair since a farmer's dogs mauled him for three hours may finally see justice done.

Solomon Koka, 65, lost one leg and may lose a second leg because gangrene has set in. He also lost part of his left ear in the attack on New Years Day of 2001.

The criminal system declined to prosecute the case, saying there was insufficient evidence against the dogs' owner, Frederik Geyser.

But lawyers from the Wits Law Clinic are representing Koka free of charge and taking the matter to the civil courts.

Koka's attorney, Bheki Makhubela, said Koka was suing for damages.

A summons was served on Geyser last week.

Koka was attacked by three bull terriers at Weltevreden farm near Naboomspruit while trying to feed them in their pen. Geyser and his family were at church at the time.

Koka said he didn't know there were three new dogs in the pen, in addition to the seven he normally fed.

It was these three that attacked him, he said.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) instructed the Wits Law Clinic to act on Koka's behalf after his brother, Pona, turned to the media for help in March last year.

After his plight was made public, Koka also started receiving R920 a month from the workman's compensation fund.

"But the money is still too little to get good medical care for him," Pona said. "We hope to get some money (through the lawsuit) to give him good medical care."

Pona has given up his full-time job at a cash loans company to take care of his brother.

"I have to ensure that he baths, eats and changes his dressing," he said.

Geyser's father, Alwyn, said that his son was not available to comment and didn't have a cellphone to be reached on.

- African Eye