EAST LONDON - Caterers serving at President Thabo Mbeki's dinner at River Park here have disputed the police version of the dog-biting incident on Thursday night.
Border Technikon first- year hospitality student Olwethu Ntsasa, 17, suffered a 15cm gash from the bite and had to have the wound stitched at Frere Hospital.
Ntsasa said yesterday she had been so looking forward to the day.
'To serve the president, let alone to have a first glimpse of him in person, was what I was looking forward to," a tearful Ntsasa told the Daily Dispatch yesterday .
'But the police and negligence of... (the dog) handler shattered all that. Instead of serving and seeing for the first time my beloved president, uZizi, I was bitten by a dog, a police dog."
The ordeal would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Ntsasa was interviewed after seven angry Border Technikon hospitality students, part of the group serving at the dinner who said they also narrowly escaped being bitten, came to the Dispatch to relate their account of what really happened.
They said police did not even take statements from eyewitnesses.
Police spokesperson Captain Michelle Matroos was quoted in yesterday's Dispatch as saying the caterers were asked to leave the premises so the dog unit could carry out a routine check for bombs and suspicious items before the VIPs' arrival.
Ntsasa reportedly stayed in the cordoned-off area and was then bitten on the leg by a police dog.
'That is nonsense, it's all lies, who told us that (to leave) - nobody. All of us, myself and all other caterers were not in the place where the guests were going to eat," said Ntsasa.
Other caterers agreed with her account.
The caterers said the dining area was partitioned with curtains and they were sitting on a high stand overlooking the area when the incident happened.
Ntsasa said: 'We saw a dog coming through the curtains and it immediately charged at us. We screamed and fled for our lives. The dog meant business. It was not handled."
The other caterers independently confirmed this.
They said a policeman thought to be the dog's handler was pretty calm and not taking the matter seriously, although the dog was charging at them.
'He was just walking slowly and calling his dog, 'Come King, come King'. If it was not for another woman officer who held the dog and chained it, the dog could have bitten many more people," Ntsasa said.
Matroos said in yesterday's Dispatch that the other caterers, including one who sprained her ankle after falling onto another woman, were outside the cordoned-off area. But the caterers yesterday said Ntsasa was also outside the area.
Ntsasa's father blamed the dog handler for the incident. 'This is all the negligence of the policeman, and he should take the blame," said Mphathiswa Ntsasa, adding that Matroos should stop covering for the handler.
Police say the incident was not deliberate and the warning to move back was given several times. 'The dog got excited after someone screamed and this resulted in the bite," said Matroos.
An assault case has been opened against the policeman.
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