2017-10-10Staff Report 2 Obrein Simasiku Omuthiya-A male employee of China Building Materials in Omuthiya was on Friday stabbed in the thigh with a knife by his Chinese employer after a fight broke out. It is alleged that a spark from a grinding machine hit the employee in the eye, and that he later refused to work on similar jobs without protective clothing. The victim, Erastus Joshua, was allegedly offered N$6,000 to seek medical attention, as well as to not lay charges against the suspect, Xub Tqo. The suspect’s brother, who identified himself as Tu, said a fight broke out on Friday between the two and was broken up by others at the premises. Xub then went inside the shop to collect a knife and returned to stab Joshua. Joshua was given two days off, but was ordered to report for work yesterday (Monday). When New Era visited the workshop yesterday, Joshua was limping and complaining of severe pain from the stab wound, although he received medical treatment on Friday. At the time, police were still questioning Xub at the police station, but they later released him, as there was no case opened against him, with Joshua opting to resolve the matter privately. “He told me to cut a zinc with a grinder, but I refused. I told him that I was hit by spark in my eyes, hence for me to continue I needed protective clothing. But this angered him and it led to the fight. He went inside to collect a knife and came back, but I didn’t know he had a knife with him because he held me from behind,” Joshua recounted to New Era. Tu, however, offered a different version, saying what irked his brother was that Joshua insulted Xub. “He used the f**k word to my brother, that’s how things got hot and [they] started fighting, then my uncle and I came to separate them. When he stabbed him we were far from them,” Tu explained. Some workers said this was not the first time their Chinese employers found themselves on the wrong side of the law. They allege that a security guard was earlier this year assaulted and in 2015 a female employee was also assaulted and locked up in the shop. They say there was also an incident in which their employers had pointed a firearm at a customer during an argument. 2017-10-10Staff Report 2
