Gran evicts her granddaughter from Montclair home

Montclair resident Candice-Leigh McLean has been ordered by the Durban High Court to leave her grandmother’s Benson Road property and pay all outstanding water and light fees.

This came after a family dispute took a nasty turn. Eighty-five year-old grandmother, Phyllis McNamara has been living in an Amanzimtoti old age home since May last year, after an attack in her Benson Road property in August 2012 raised safety concerns.

The dispute was fuelled by an incident in October last year when Stanley McNamara along with other members of his family tried to retrieve his brother’s vehicle, which was parked on McNamara’s property where McLean had been living. They were not allowed to gain entrance onto the property. “My son, brother and I tried to get my brother’s car out of the garage but we were not allowed to enter the property,” said Stanley McNamara.

“I then went home and returned with the power of attorney and my mother. On seeing her gran, Candice-Leigh said: ‘Oh granny, I thought you were dead.’ My mother was refused entry into the yard by Gavin Hegter who was there at the insistence of McLean.”

McNamara was told they needed to make an appointment to gain entry to the property. Stan McNamara as well as members of the community took issue with the community policing forum’s involvement in the matter. Mark Francis, a former member of the Montclair Crime Eye community watch said it is morally incorrect to have denied access to the grandmother, while another former member of the group who wished to remain anonymous said it was well an alleged abuse of power from Gavin Hegter who is the CPF chairman.

Members of Montclair Crime Eye who responded to a distress call were at loggerheads with Hegter.
Hegter defended his position by stating “he received a call from a friend who needed his help. I acted as a private individual and not as a CPF chairman.”

McLean has since left the property.