Phumlani Mbatha was allegedly killed by a driver who ran a red light and who then drove off with him still on the car.
|||On Saturday evening, Phumlani Mbatha crossed King Dinizulu (Berea) Road in front of the Berea Centre to chat to a friend on the other side of the road.
But he never made it. He was struck by a speeding vehicle which failed to stop after the impact. And then he disappeared with the car.
For almost an hour, friends who had been with the off-duty metro police constable at the time scoured the area searching for him and the car which had struck him, but to no avail.
Jabulani Mpanza said a frantic search for their missing friend followed.
He said they had watched in horror from the roadside as a speeding vehicle jumped a red light and ploughed into Mbatha, and then continued driving with him still on the bonnet.
He said the accident happened at about 7.10pm on Saturday evening. As the car sped away with Mbatha, Mpanza grabbed his cellphone and tried to call his friend. There was no response.
Mpanza and other friends got into their vehicles and scoured the area, going as far as the Westwood off-ramp to search for Mbatha. They also stopped a metro police vehicle and then went to King Edward VIII Hospital, hoping the driver had taken him there.
Later, they received a phone call that Mbatha had been found in the road close to Durban High School in St Thomas Road, near Musgrave Centre.
Mbatha, who had joined the metro police in May last year, was taken to Addington Hospital with “two broken legs, damage to his brain and injured hands”.
Mpanza said he and Mbatha’s other friends were at the hospital until the early hours of Sunday.
Mbatha never regained consciousness and died later that day.
Metro police spokesman Eugene Msomi said a blue VW Polo with a red “L” on the rear window, which was suspected to have crashed into Mbatha, was traced to a workshop in Tongaat.
Later, a woman, Nolwazi Nzimande, 24, of Durban North, handed herself over to Umbilo police.
Msomi said she initially appeared in court and was granted bail of R2 000.
According to Msomi, Nzimande appeared in court again on Tuesday, when she said she had not been driving the car at the time of the incident and that she would plead not guilty.
She said she would identify the driver.
Mbatha’s aunt said on Tuesday that the family did not want to talk about the incident.
A sad Mpanza said he had invited Mbatha to spend the evening with him on Saturday.
However, instead of bonding with his friend, he ended up calling his family to tell them of the tragedy.
“How do you phone someone’s brother and tell him ‘your brother has been hit by a car, but I can’t find him’?”
Mpanza said Mbatha’s future had looked bright. He had a job at the metro police and had just bought a car. - The Mercury