Cavina gives his version of incident

WHITE RIVER – Cavina spoke to Lowvelder about the ordeal which affected him and his family after the case was reported in the media.

“Some people judged me without knowing my side of the story. I hope this helps to tell them what actually happened that day.”

He said the case was thrown out of court last month, as the medical report was incorrect and the prosecutor said the complainant, Jonathon de Jager, was not interested in helping the state to pursue the matter.

The magistrate confirmed that the case had been withdrawn.

Cavina was arrested in March, after he was accused of assaulting De Jager in the parking lot of a local pub. He was at the restaurant with his wife.

“We just finished having something to eat before leaving for Hazyview. My wife got into the passenger side of our vehicle and I went around to get into the car when a land cruiser pulled up with a bunch of guys carrying flowers. You could see they were part of the pub crawl, as I could see they were drunk.”

Cavina said he saw De Jager walk to the passenger side of his car and push the top half of his body through the window, trying to drunkenly grope this wife, and said, “Kom hier, jou lekker ding”.

“I went around and pulled him off her and asked him what he was doing. He put his fists up and said, ‘Jy wil boks’ (You want to box).”

Cavina responded by punching him, knocking him to the ground.

“When someone comes at you in a threatening manner, you have to defend yourself.”

Afterwards, De Jager got up and took a selfie of himself.

“He threatened me, saying he is a lawyer and I am going to pay for what I have done.”

Cavina said he was relieved the matter was over as he was innocent and only acted to defend his wife, and himself.

De Jager did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. The NPA failed to confirm the details at the time of going to press.