THE young woman who went missing on June 18 after she and her boyfriend allegedly spent a night in a car at the side of the road in Umgababa has been found.

Also read: Port Shepstone woman goes missing in Umgababa

Lebele Govender (19) of Port Shepstone was reported missing after accompanying her mechanic boyfriend from Port Shepstone to Pietermaritzburg to attend to a truck breakdown.

Two days later, Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) reported her as a missing person after her boyfriend said that, after spending the night sleeping on the side of the road in Umgababa with her, he woke to find she was missing.

The boyfriend said he had parked at the side of the road late at night as he was too tired to continue driving to Port Shepstone.

Govender’s former foster father, Keith Pillay, poured cold water on the boyfriend’s story, saying that after she was located at a Durban place of safety, she gave the real version of events.

“She said while returning from Pietermaritzburg, he beat her, and she managed to escape. She was found by a security company and was taken to a place of safety,” alleged Pillay.

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He said Govender was orphaned as a minor, and she lived with his family. After coming of age 19 months ago, she decided to go live with her boyfriend, who Pillay said was physically abusive towards Govender.

“She has refused to leave him and refuses to open a restraining order against him,” he said, adding that Govender has previously received counselling.

He said he would be travelling to Durban to get her from the place of safety.

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