'Dead' hijack victim is alive

2004-11-22 22:52

Lizel Steenkamp

Johannesburg - You're told your son has been shot dead in a hijacking - but, a few hours later, he phones a friend expressing condolences at your home.

This is the trauma two pensioners went through on Friday after the disaster management centre in Alberton mistakenly told them their son had died of a bullet wound on the way to hospital.

While Johan Bester jun, 39, was attending a meeting in Sasolburg, his parents, wife and daughter were grieving because they thought he had been shot dead.

Johan Bester sen, 65, said: "I had no reason not to believe it. In this country, it is entirely possible."

An employee of the disaster management centre in Boksburg phoned Bester last Friday to find out whether his son belonged to a medical aid fund, as he had to be taken to hospital urgently.

Bester sen said: "She said Johan jun had been shot and could not speak." The hijacking report made sense to Bester because his son worked at a Benoni company.

Sat next to the bed, crying

"A gentleman from disaster management in Alberton phoned half an hour later to say they were no longer taking my son to Glynnwood Hospital as he had died."

Sophia Bester then had to tell her daughter, Lizanne, nine, that her father had died.

"It caused us unbelievable and unnecessary trauma. My child just sat next to the bed crying."

The family discovered the death report was a cruel mistake only when a friend arrived at Bester jun's parents' home to express his condolences.

"He had just stopped at our gate when Johan jun phoned him on his cell. Then we discovered he was in a meeting in Sasolburg!

"That second shock was almost as bad as the first. You're glad it isn't true, but you've already started grieving.

"You can't change stations like you can with a radio," said Bester sen.

He has not yet been able to determine how the disaster management centre could have made a mistake like that.

Chaplains have to check details

According to Johan van den Heever of Ekurhuleni emergency services, a message telling someone of a death may not be given telephonically.

"There are 30 chaplains in the emergency services who have to take the news personally to the next of kin," he said.

An anonymous emergency services worker said on Monday that a chaplain was supposed to check information thoroughly before telling someone of a death.

"It is precisely to prevent something like this happening."

Pat Abrahams, acting executive director of public safety in Ekurhuleni, had not responded yet to Beeld's enquiry.

- Beeld