Man rescued from earning R70 a week

By Anele Siwa
03 March 2008

A 25-year-old man from Nyanga was recovered off the barge in Hout Bay on Thursday.

“On arrival at the Crane Barge a cold, tired and hungry 25-year-old man was fed by our NSRI duty crew and sent on his way after the duty crew rounded up a kitty to give the man some money,” says Brad Gyser, NSRI Hout Bay Station Commander.

According to Craig Lambinon the man had been on the barge for the past 3 weeks and said he was supposed to have been paid R70.00 per week but said he hadn’t received his pay.

“We found him with only some uncooked Maize meal as food and he was supposed to be stripping scrap metal from the barge. He appeared to not have eaten for a while and he was dehydrated when we found him,” says Lambinon.

According to Lambinon the employer had been held at Hout Bay harbour earlier on Friday by the Harbour Master and was arrested by Police for allegedly working on the crane barge without a permit but he only told police later in the day that one of his workers was still on the barge and police asked NSRI for assistance to get the man off the barge.