A theatre actress and singer is recovering in hospital after she was physically assaulted and was threatened with an axe by a man known to her at the weekend.
Londiwe Ngcamu (30), the mother of a two-month-old baby girl and a six-year-old boy, was playing the lead role in The 7 Days of War musical that was performed at the Winston Churchill Theatre, South Africa from Friday to Sunday night.
Speaking to The Witness from her hospital bed on Monday afternoon, Ngcamu, from Sobantu, said the incident happened on Saturday night just after 10 pm.
“We had just come back from the theatre after our performance and I was chilling with my cast members at the club house in Sobantu, where some of our cast members who live far away stay during shows.
“At around 10.30 pm I got a call from home informing me that my baby was restless, so I had to rush home,” she said.
Ngcamu said a man known to her, had called her and offered to walk her home.
She decided to walk alone for some of the distance intending to meet the man halfway, but when they met on the road an altercation broke out between them and the man then dragged Ngcamu to his home where he beat her severely.
“When we got to his home the gate was closed and he pushed me onto the gate to open it.
“One of his friends and [that man’s] girlfriend were there but they did nothing to help me.
“They saw him beating me up but stood and watched for a while before they left.
“When we got to his room he threw me on the floor and started beating me. He banged my head on the ground and used his fists and knee to hit my face. He even used the small suitcase I had with me to hit me on my face.”
Ngcamu said at some point the man started punching her and kicking her in the ribs, telling her that he wanted to break them.
“I was so scared and kept on begging him not to kill me, but he kept on going. It went on for hours.
“When he got exhausted he would lie down on his bed to rest and gather his strength, then start beating me all over again.”
The woman said at some point she realised that he had a knife and she tried to grab it.
“I can’t remember what happened to the knife but I have a huge cut on my palm and I think it was from when I grabbed the knife.
“He then pulled out an axe and asked me if I would prefer that he used the axe to slit my throat or to cut off my fingers. I thought he was going to kill me. I kept on praying, asking God to spare my life.”
She managed to grab the axe and threw it under his bed.
“While beating me up, he was shouting to one of his relatives who was in another outside building that he must help him dig my grave because he was going to kill me,” said the still visibly shaken Ngcamu.
She said the man eventually fell asleep from exhaustion and she managed to escape and asked for help to get home. When she got home she called the police who drove her to hospital.
Ngcamu, whose face was still very swollen and her eyes sealed shut from the swelling on Monday afternoon, told The Witness that she had sustained head injuries and was being kept in hospital as doctors feared that her kidneys might fail.
She said she was in the process of opening a case against her attacker.
“I want him to be arrested so that he knows that what he did to me is not acceptable. He must never be allowed to hit another woman again and I will make sure of that,” she said.
Mvuselelo Buthelezi, the director of The 7 Days of War musical, said Ngcamu had been delivering a “stunning” theatre performance from Friday, when the show started, and that they were forced to find someone else to replace her for the closing show on Sunday night following the incident.
“The man who did this does not deserve to be part of society.
“He must be found and thrown in jail for his hideous act of violence,” said Buthelezi.
source
https://www.ladunliadinews.com/2019/01/actress-battered-by-man-for-kissing-in.html
