Cape Town - An elderly coloured couple say they were called the k-word by a white teenager whom they stopped from smoking dagga in front of their house.
Charles Kawalie, 73, said he was working on his garden near the park across the street from Albow Gardens in Milnerton on Friday, when the 17-year-old tried to light up a zol.
He said he stopped the teen, who then became aggressive and threw a coffee mug at him.
“He called me a k **** r; I chased him and when he went around my flat, I saw him push my wife and spit on her and then ran to his home.
“I went to look for him and dragged him and told my wife to beat him up for what he did. He then threw a glass bowl at my wife and she had a cut, which needed eight stitches.”
Kawalie’s wife, Hester, said she heard the commotion when the teen also called her the k-word.
“He said I was a k **** r and n **** r, and he threw a brick at our kitchen window. That is when I went outside and saw him and he was so rude.
“After I was wounded, my daughter and other relatives came and took me to the hospital.” The teen’s family said he has a brain defect and has outbursts. His 66-year-old grandmother said the teen got home and sat on the couch.
“I could see that he was angry and shortly after he was home Charles and Hester came in and dragged him to the room where they assaulted him.
“He didn’t hit anyone with the glass bowl, he threw it on the floor and a broken piece hit Hester.”
Both parties said this was not the first time there was a tiff between the boy and the couple.
Charles Kawalie said: “This is the fourth time that this happened. It’s weird, that the boy grew up in front of us, and we helped him with his homework. We don’t know what happened to him because he just became rude.”
The teen’s grandmother said the boy fell when he was young.
“Something shifted in his brain and his behaviour completely changed and he is impulsive and his anger takes over him sometimes, like the morning after the last incident, he threw bricks at Charles’s home.”
Police spokesperson, Aneliswa Manyana, said Milnerton police registered a case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for further investigation.
“According to reports, the complainant was at her house when her husband was trying to stop the suspect who always smokes dagga in front of their house. It is alleged that the suspect became aggressive and when the complainant came closer he insulted them and assaulted her with a glass bowl and choked her. No one was arrested.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
Cape Argus