Johannesburg - A squabble over an illegally parked car left a woman injured after she was repeatedly hit against the car door in an alleged racial attack involving a coloured family and a white couple.
The coloured woman alleged that she was called a “Boesman (Bushman) b***h” and that her daughter was also subjected to racial slurs and physical attack.
All this happened in front of a three-year-old grandson, who cried hysterically throughout the ordeal.
The 50-year-old Anne Hicks claims that the incident, which happened on May 21, and was captured on CCTV camera, will be etched in her memory.
The Star has seen footage of the attack, which lasted about 18 seconds.
“It was an experience from hell for us. It was short, but was the most traumatic in my life,” the woman said.
Police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Karen Jacobs said a case of assault had been opened and that the police were still busy with investigations.
The attack comes as South Africa is grappling with a spate of racism- related incidents, including those involving some high-profile people.
Hicks, who lives in Sophiatown, said she was driving with her daughter, Yvonne Moodey, 30, when they stopped at a petrol station in Bergbron, Randburg.
While filling up, a car arrived and parked in a no parking zone. Hicks said the manner in which the car was parked made it difficult for her daughter’s car to drive off from the filling station.
The driver of the car was in the shop and had left his wife and two small children in the vehicle.
Moodey said that as she battled to manoeuvre her way out, she tried to explain to the woman seated in the car: “This is not a parking zone, how am I supposed to pass?”
She said the woman ignored her.
As they drove slowly away from the garage, Moodey’s three-year-old son asked that the CD that was playing be changed. Moodey stopped the car to change it.
It was at that point that the attack happened.
The footage shows a white woman walking towards Moodey’s car, gesturing. Once she arrives at the driver’s side, she starts attacking the driver through the open window.
A man can be seen running towards Moodey’s car. He goes to the passenger side and does something to the mirror. Both mother and daughter told The Star that the man was trying to break it.
Meanwhile, Hicks, seated in the back, tries to get out of the car as she sees the woman attacking her daughter.
However, the woman dashes to the back door and closes it, banging the door against Hicks, who had not yet exited the car. The woman repeatedly bangs the door against Hicks.
The man who had followed her to the car then joins in the attack. He takes over the assault on Hicks, banging the door harder on Hicks’s body. Hicks shuts the door and Moodey drives away.
Hicks claimed that she and her daughter were sworn at and called “Boesman b****es”.
She said: “When the husband arrived, he said dis my f***** vrou (this is my f***ing wife), as if we were assaulting his wife, and also said: Jou Boesman b***h.”
Moodey said the attack took her by surprise as she had already forgotten about her complaint about illegal parking and was leaving the filling station.
She said she was taken aback to see the woman at her car window. “I’m very bitter. They were absolutely in the wrong,” she added.
The Star