Sunday 20 February 2011

BLANTYRE WOMAN BATTLES FOR LIFE AFTER DOGS ATTACK

A 32-year-old woman is lying hopelessly at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre after she was ruthlessly attacked by her master’s vicious dogs in the city on Sunday morning.

Witnesses say the woman Margaret Tebulo met her fate around 6am as she reported for normal duties at her workplace. Tebulo works as a maid at a well known Blantyre based transporter Ninkawa Bulks at Magalasi area.

“As usual the woman arrived at her workplace at around 6am. Immediately after entering the compound the dogs charged at her and started mauling her,” a guard who works close to the scene of incident said.

He added: “At that time security guards were not near the scene and when they heard the violent sound of the dogs it was too late.”

The woman is alleged to have been attacked by six vicious dogs owned by owner of Ninkawa Bulks Limited.

While police have said they are not aware of the attack, the woman is currently battling for her life at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Ward 5A.

Efforts to talk to the employer proved futile as the phones both ground and mobile were not picked.

This is the third case in a space of few months where workers have been attacked by vicious dogs belonging to their employers.

The first serious dog attack incident happened in Lilongwe where a 73-year old Cephas Chimdima was heavily maimed and lost some facial parts after being attacked by five vicious dogs belonging to a South African national Dean Van Schalhwal.

Schalhwal accepted to foot the medical bills for Chimdima’s plastic surgery which was conducted in South Africa. But the victim’s face remains deformed.


Reji Joseph: Another dog attack victim
After the attack fury engulfed Malawi after the South African national connived with a hospital official to illegally obtain HIV status details of the victim to find out if the dogs had contracted HIV from the blood of the Malawian guard.

President Bingu wa Mutharika was also angry with the development and made a rare outburst condemning foreign nationals who ill-treat citizens in their country.

A visibly angry Mutharika warned that he would not tolerate foreigners treating Malawians “worse than dogs”.

“I won’t accept foreigners to come here and treat Malawians worse than dogs, I don’t have room for white people treating Malawians like dogs,” said Mutharika.

The other incident occurred in Blantyre where 10 dogs belonging to Malawian of Asian origin Gabriel Fernandos attacked his cook, Reji Joseph.

Just like Chimdima, Joseph lost both ears and sustained very deep cuts as he wrestled with the dogs.

Meanwhile, Reji Joseph has finally been discharged from the Queens Hospital where he had been admitted for about two months.
Nyasa Times

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