Guard sues over lost fingers

A FORMER security guard, who accidentally shot off part of his left hand with a shotgun two years ago, is taking his former employer to court after the security company dismissed him following the incident.

Onesmus Aiyambo (25) claims that he was never trained to use a firearm before being sent to work at a mining site near Rosh Pinah for G4 Security Services in September 2007.
According to Aiyambo, the incident – which cost him the use of two of his fingers and part of his hand – happened on the morning of October 1 that year, when he and a supervisor took a break.
‘At around 10h00, we were sitting down with my supervisor. Then the gun fell down (while) hanging from my reflector jacket, then opened fire itself and shot me in the left hand,’ he told The Namibian.
He was immediately taken to a doctor at Rosh Pinah.
Aiyambo was later transferred to Windhoek, where his pinky and ring finger were amputated.
His contract with the company expired in January 2008, after which he was not rehired, he says. ‘Now I am a disabled person. Where can I go to find money to go to the hospital if my hand starts to pain and now that the company … dismissed me? We used to go ploughing the land [in the North], but now if I go there I am not able to do anything. I just have to wait for my parents to go and work in the field. And I was supposed to be the one to help them,’ he said.
His family, he says, has sent him back to Windhoek, telling him ‘they are the ones who gave you a gun without training’.
Aiyambo says his objections to the company’s retiring him resulted in a court case opened in September last year.
According to the company, however, a doctor declared Aiyambo fit to work after a period of sick leave, but he refused to accept any of the options offered him.
‘He claims that he was unfairly dismissed, and he opened a case, but nothing has yet come of this case,’ G4S Operations Director Steven Mertens said yesterday.
Mertens said Aiyambo had been posted to a site which required his shotgun to remain sealed, but that the former employee removed the seal without authorisation.
‘There is an argument being made that he could possibly have done the shooting deliberately to try and get compensation,’ Mertens said.
‘The work he was assigned to (after the incident) did not require the use of his lost hand,’ Mertens said.