A man was left with injuries to his face after rush-hour traffic on Thursday led to a tussle in which an enraged commuter allegedly threatened 66-year-old Pieter Nel with a baseball bat before punching him in the face.

Nel said he sustained a swollen face and a 2cm deep cut to his eye in the incident that happened in Irene, Pretoria.

“There was no reason for a person to act like that,” Nel told Pretoria Rekord.

Just before 15:00, Nel and his colleagues were traversing rush-hour traffic. Nel told the newspaper he just wanted to get the day over with as he moved through the busy roads.

“The traffic was bad because cars were all diverted due to the sinkholes affecting some roads.

“This guy came from my left. I know that there were two vehicles in front of me, a lorry and a mini-bus. They went through, and then this guy came into the circle and stopped. I indicated that he could go again, I don’t know whether he thought I was going to smash into him if he went into the circle.

“But he was still stopped. Because he waited, I decided I would proceed.

“I went, and that’s when he started screaming and swearing. My fellow employees took pictures and videos. Then the man went back to his car and fetched a baseball bat.”

Nel says the irate man came back to his window and threatened to smash the window out with the bat. He opened the window so that it would not be broken. The man then pulled Nel’s door open.

“That’s when he punched me. I tried to defend myself, but I couldn’t, and he punched me again.”

Nel said a woman, assumed to be the man’s wife, was in a car behind him. She had a baby with her. She also got out and blamed Nel for being in the wrong.

A case of assault was opened with the Lyttelton SAPS.