The ManicaPost
Gilbert Munetsi Post Correspondent
A PROMINENT Mutare businessman is being sued for $113 000 by a worker who tragically lost a hand during maintenance work at his abattoir situated just outside the city.
Demand for compensation against McDonald Madziro has since been submitted at the High Court in Harare (Case No. 3689/17) in which he is being sued in his personal capacity.
His company -Madziro Farm Butchery – has been cited as the second respondent. For the plaintiff, Nyika, Kanengoni and Partners Legal Practitioners are also demanding that their client, Knowledge Kaseke, be paid $3 800 to enable him to have elbow active prosthesis as well as settling an outstanding hospital bill of $1 552.
Mystery, however, shrouds the decision taken by Mutare Provincial Hospital to admit the severely injured Kaseke in the absence of a police report and, subsequently, a medical affidavit that would have been used to quantify the damage.
Facts of the matter are that on February 26, 2016, Kaseke – who is an electrical engineer by profession – was called to carry out routine repairs on the defendant’s butchery equipment at Number 7 Miles Chimanimani Road.
The two parties have had the same arrangement dating back to 2014 and the work extends to all the other butcheries owned by Madziro that are dotted around the city.
The plaintiff argues in his papers that as is customary and standard practice, it was the defendant’s responsibility to ensure that electricity to the equipment was switched off to avoid injury.
He further alleges that even though he personally took the trouble to turn off power at an MCB, a manager at the company named in the papers as Simba switched on the electricity, resulting in the machine hacking off Kaseke’s right arm at the shoulder.
What further irks Kaseke is the fact that he was whisked to hospital without the standard procedure of a police report. His arm was amputated when he had lost consciousness and he has no knowledge of what happened to his his “missing” body part.
Upon admission to Mutare Provincial Hospital, he was attended to by a Dr F. M. Chitungo while Mr Kitcat performed the surgery. His hospital account number is 233674.
Dr Chitungo admitted in his correspondence to applicant’s lawyers that his patient “suffered a traumatic amputation . . . he developed a septic stump which was managed with antibiotics and strong analgesics and has suffered a permanent disability since his hand cannot be replaced”.
Explanation could, however, not be given as to why the hospital attended to the severely injured in the absence of a police report.
Kaseke cites in his papers that apart from a paltry $100 Madziro paid to have him discharged from hospital, efforts had been in vain to have him assisted in settling the outstanding hospital bill of $1 550 for the month-long stay and subsequent outpatient treatment received post discharge.
Justifying his claim, Kaseke says he is a technician by profession, an occupation that requires the use of his hands to perform and he also gained his entire livelihood from his work which he has not been able to perform since his disablement.
“This has been compounded by the fact that the plaintiff was right-handed and thus lost his most functional arm. The injury sustained (by the plaintiff) was a direct result of the defendant’s negligence in failing to ensure that the electricity supply was cut off from all equipment that was being serviced and/or repaired by the plaintiff.
“In consequence of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff, he has suffered damages in the form of medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering. He is also poised to suffer prospective damages in the form of future medical expenses and future lost income and he estimates his damages to be in the sum of $113 000”, appealed Kaseke’s lawyers in their papers to the High Court.
Madziro is being represented by Messrs Mugadza, Chinzamba and Partners.
