Publications
Partners
The case of a Springs farmworker who was allegedly forced to drink faeces by his employer has been postponed to May 29.
Joseph Mona was in the Springs Magistrates’ Court on Monday seeking an unconditional public apology and monetary compensation for allegedly being forced to drink faeces by his boss, Harry Leicester.
He was represented by the South African Human Rights Commission which had initiated Equality Court proceedings against the farmer and his family.
City Press reported in February about Mona’s fight to get justice.
He went to the police in Springs in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, to the Equality Court in Germiston, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration in Boksburg but it wasn’t until a court official eventually went to the Economic Freedom Fighters to complain that he hadn’t received any justice, that the wheels finally started turning.
“If it was not for political pressure, nothing probably would have happened,” he said.
Read: ‘He scooped a jug into the sewage and forced me to drink it’
Maria Leicester (50) and her 27-year-old son Chris were taken into custody and appeared in the Springs Magistrates’ Court on charges of crimen injuria, kidnapping and aggravated assault earlier this year. Maria’s husband Harry, was ill, and was only charged later.
Today, the commission’s provincial manager and attorney Buang Jones said the case was postponed following Mona’s cross-examination.
The incident in question occurred on December 9 where it is alleged that the family forced the worker to drink litres of faecal matter before allegedly attempting to drown the mechanic in a septic tank on their plot.
He was called a useless kaffir after he failed to switch on the engine of the septic tank pump machine. The farmer took a big jug, dipped it in the sewer hole and forced the Complainant to drink its contents while calling him a kaffir.
— Buang Jones (@IamBuangJones) May 14, 2018
It is alleged that the farmer Mr Harry Leicester would constantly torture, humiliate and physically abuse his workers.
— Buang Jones (@IamBuangJones) May 14, 2018
The Leicester family earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/h0Nu3Sr0ba
— Buang Jones (@IamBuangJones) May 14, 2018
Mona had recounted the incident and alleged that Leicester and his son, Chris, tortured him because he didn’t switch on the engine of a septic tank pump on their plot.
“They woke me up and screamed that I was a useless k****r,” he said. “Chris held my hands behind my back and his father scooped a jug into the sewage and forced me to drink it while they screamed at me that I was a k****r.
“Chris kicked my feet out from under me and I fell into the septic tank that was full of sewage. He and his father closed the hole with the corrugated iron sheet and left me in the stinking sewage,” said Mona.
Complainant’s hands were tightly held by the Respondent’s son Chris Leicester as they dragged him to the sewer hole.
— Buang Jones (@IamBuangJones) May 14, 2018
Mona said he managed to crawl out of the tank about half an hour later after surviving by clutching onto a plastic pipe.
The following day, Leicester and Chris pretended as if nothing had happened and wouldn’t allow Mona to leave the property.
The Complainant asserts that the conduct and use of the k-word by Mr Leicester was undoubtedly demeaning, hurtful and intentionally hateful.
— Buang Jones (@IamBuangJones) May 14, 2018
