No happy ending for Durban woman’s bodyguard love story

A DURBAN businesswoman has sought an urgent protection order against her bodyguard-turned-lover, accusing him of beating her and threatening her with a gun.

The woman applied for the order in the High Court in Durban last week to restrain the man from threatening, intimidating, harassing or assaulting her or her two children from a previous relationship.

Neither the Umhlanga woman nor her former livein boyfriend may be named, to protect the identity of the minor children.

The woman met the man in February last year while he was working as a bouncer at Durban clubs.

She later employed him as her personal bodyguard.

“Subsequently the relationship between the respondent and I became romantic and intimate and we commenced living together,” she said in court papers.

The pair moved into a property in the upmarket Milkwood area of Umhlanga with the man’s four children, aged 19, 14, 10 and eight, and the woman’s two, aged 11 and nine.

The woman said that soon after they moved in together, her partner gave up his job, making her the sole breadwinner.

“Initially the relationship between us blossomed. However, over the last few months he was becoming aggressive, abusive and physically violent with me.”

She alleged that he restricted her relatives and friends from visiting the home they shared.

The woman said their relationship faltered over his treatment of her children. Things came to a head last month over the purchase of Diwali clothing for them.

“He was adamant that I should not buy my children clothing for Diwali as they did not deserve it and [he said] that I should discipline them more.”

She said the man lost his temper with her five days later. “He began hitting me and pulling me around the bedroom. In a rage, he broke a 55-inch television set in the bedroom. He then ran to get his firearm, which he keeps under the mattress in our bedroom.”

She said she fled to her car, but he caught up with her, slapped her and pointed the gun at her.

“He hurled unmentionable obscenities at me and threatened that he would kill me,” she said.

“Petrified” and “shaken”, she drove to a friend’s home.

The woman laid a charge of assault against the man the next day.

She said she later found out that the man had been selling off items she had bought to furnish their home and she opened charges of theft against him. The man was detained in connection with the charges.

The woman said she was afraid of his reaction at being detained because of her and asked that she and her children be protected.

“He is temperamental and has a violent disposition . . . I believe that he is capable of carrying out his threats.”

The man has until later this month to respond to the court application.