Police are investigating after a 20-year-old KFC worker was allegedly stabbed by a drunk colleague at an outlet in Belhar.
The bloody attack took place on Sunday at the branch located near Belhar Train Station on Robert Sobukwe Drive.
Tandile Funda, 20, a kitchen hand, says at about 4pm, his attacker arrived at the job “drunk as a skunk”.
He says out of the blue, the man picked up a knife, and viciously stabbed him in the head and left ear, while shouting, “Do you guys have brains?”
Tandile says he fought back and his attacker ran out of the store.
He says a colleague, who knows first aid, dressed his heavily bleeding wound, and instead of calling an ambulance, someone called his family to fetch him.
Tandile’s sister, Thumeka Mnana, says KFC needs to take responsibility for the attack.
“Nobody knew why the drunk man was allowed into the kitchen to work,” Thumeka says.
“The supervisor had run off, leaving another person in charge of the store.
“Tandile was bleeding badly but we had to wait four hours for the IOD (Injury On Duty) documentation to be filled in.
SCENE: Tandile was stabbed in the kitchen of the KFC outlet innie Belhar
“When we eventually got to a private [medical] facility in Bellville, we were told the documents were filled in wrong and the store manager was supposed to be with us because they required an upfront payment,” says the angry sister.
She says they went back to the KFC with the still-bleeding Tandile and asked the supervisor to call the store manager.
“The manager said that the company will not pay for Tandile’s medical expenses and he must go to a government hospital,” says Thumeka.
“He was attacked in their kitchen with one of their knives by one of their employees. They must take some responsibility!”
Tandile has been booked off sick and received stitches in his head and left ear.
The Daily Voice called the KFC store and a man who identified himself as “Jacques the manager” referred queries to their area manager Armand Goosen and gave his cellphone number.
Jacques said he was aware of the incident, but was not the manager on duty at the time.
After numerous calls and messages left on Goosen’s cellphone, he finally answered, saying he was not aware of the matter and referred queries to “Andrew”.
He did not know what Andrew’s title was, nor did he have a contact number for him, but he insisted Andrew was the only one who could assist with the query.
Goosen then asked the Daily Voice to call him back on Friday when he “would try to get Andrew’s number”.
By the time of going to print, KFC had not responded.