A Wynberg taxi driver who lost his eye wants justice to be meted out to his two attackers.
Shakeel O’Neill was blinded in his left eye after his attackers stabbed him multiple times in the face and chest following a road rage incident with a fellow taxi driver last year.
The father of four from Hanover Park says he was relieved when the two men were nabbed and put behind bars, but got a skrik when he was summoned to Wynberg Magistrates’ Court earlier this month and told the case was “kicked out”.
“In March last year I was the gaatjie on that trip to Cape Town,” he explains.
“There was a taxi in front of us and he was driving k**. He kept nipping in and blocking us off and then when we got to Mowbray, we were all swearing mekaar se ma se **** out.
“Even there by Groote Schuur Hospital, we were still skelling. Then we went our own ways.”
He says he returned to the Wynberg terminus later that day and was allegedly confronted by the other driver and gaatjie “who assaulted and stabbed him”.
ASSAULT: Shakeel was stabbed in his chest
“My whole oog was out and I felt flou. The people took me to the hospital and I had to lie in Groote Schuur for almost a month,” says Shakeel.
“The doctors tried to save my eye but told me I will be blind in my left eye for life.”
He made a case and a month later cops arrested one of the suspects in Wynberg.
“I saw the second one in Cape Town and I told Detective Kula where he is but he never went to get him. One day I was with my wife and I saw him, so I went to Cape Town Central Police Station and told them and they arrested him.”
He says Kula was furious with him and called him “lastig” when he asked him about the progress of the case.
“Then I got a summons to go to court two weeks ago and the prosecutor told me the case was thrown out because the detective did not follow up.”
But police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk says charges were not dropped.
“No charges were dropped, the case was still in court up until 8 March when it was their last court appearance and (we are) still awaiting the outcome of the court.”