POLICE have confirmed the arrest of an employee of the Total Gateway Garage in uMhlanga following the alleged assault of a patron over the weekend. The family of the man, Tevin Basheer, was forced to watch in horror as he was brutally assaulted by the employee.

Feeling helpless after the attack, the victim’s mum, Cookie Basheer, took to Facebook to share their ordeal. Since the attack, his mother says, her son who is epileptic, has suffered three seizures.

According to Basheer their nightmare began when they stopped at the garage over the weekend. Tevin’s sister-in-law, who is heavily pregnant, wanted to use the toilet facilities at the station. However, to their dismay, the ablution facilities, which are coin operated, were ‘not in working order’.

The victim then approached the cashier at the Bonjour Kwik Shop for assistance and alerted him to the fact that the coin slot was jammed. According to Basheer, the victim asked the cashier for change for R10. The cashier claimed that the till was closed and that he could not help. When the young man attempted to explain his wife’s situation to the cashier he reportedly became aggressive. The victim later received coins from one of the restaurants at the petrol station.

“When my son exited the Bon Jour, the assistant was outside and as he walked parallel with my son towards the toilets, my son expressed dissatisfaction regarding his service. He then gestured as if he wanted to hit my son three times before finally taking the first punch, breaking my son’s nose in two places. I was in the passenger seat and viewed the entire incident. I got out the vehicle and pleaded with the assistant to stop, but my request fell on deaf ears as he continued punching him in the face,” she wrote on the social media platform.

Tevin managed to escape the onslaught and made his way to his vehicle, from which he retrieved a stick.

“I told my son, we don’t behave like this and asked him to put the stick away. While talking to my son the attendant came charging towards him. My son then threw the stick and got into the car. We drove a few metres to fetch my daughter-in-laws. They were hysterical at the time,” she added.

Bleeding profusely, the young man drove himself to the Mt Edgecombe Hospital where he stayed overnight for observation.

“Besides the trauma we have been exposed to, Total Gateway has shown no remorse to us. This has left me shattered to think that a brand of this nature can handle our situation so unprofessionally and show no empathy,” she said.

The manager at the garage, Allan (he refused to give his surname), said he could not comment on the incident as it was being investigated by police.

Lt Raymond Deokaran of the Durban North SAPS confirmed today that an employee has been arrested and had been released on bail on Tuesday. A case of assault is being investigated by the station.

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