Brutalised mother speaks of her ordeal

"How is my baby?"

These were the first words Tina Mbili uttered yesterday after waking from an induced coma following a savage attack allegedly by her former boyfriend a week ago.

The young mother has been in a Durban hospital's intensive care unit since Thursday last week.

The police are acting on the assumption that the father of her 17-month-old daughter, Michael Padayachee, brutally assaulted her and left her for dead.

They have set up a special team to track him down.

Mbili had obtained a protection order against Padayachee, and two domestic violence cases in which he is the accused are pending.

Speaking softly and still in pain a few hours after regaining consciousness, Mbili recalled the day that the man she once loved used her body, she said, as a punching bag. She said he had been stalking her for days and attacked her while she and their daughter were walking across a park on their way home.

"I can't remember much of the things, except when he kicked, punched and pulled my hair. I then passed out after a few blows. The rest is really blocked out of my mind."

Mbili's face was so badly swollen that her relatives could not recognise her.

Yesterday, some of the swelling had subsided but recovery is still a long way off for the 21-year-old from Verulam, north of Durban. She does not have sensation in some parts of her body.

"There's new pain every day. I can't feel certain parts of my head. My other eye is completely swollen and I can't open it. Doctors said they will refer me to an orthopaedic surgeon for further checkups," she said while trying to put on a smile.

Padayachee was out on R5000 bail in an intimidation case Mbili opened in June.

She described him as a man who is a "law unto himself".

"He has no boundaries. He doesn't respect the law, which is why I applied for a protection order. I could no longer take his abuse.

"I don't ever want to see him ."

The attack took place a few days before Mbili was due to go to court for a review of the protection order.

Breathing heavily, Mbili said she was concerned about her daughter and her job.

"I have not seen my baby for a week now and it's killing me.

"I am a single mother and the fact that I am here in hospital, instead of working for my child, means that by the time I get out I will have lost my job because I was temporarily employed.

"All these things affect me badly. The medical bill will be too much when I get out of here and I don't know who will pay for it."

Padayachee is said to be on the run.

Yesterday, KwaZulu-Natal MEC for community safety and liaison Willies Mchunu vowed that the police would do "everything in our power" to arrest him.

The family has been told that a police team has been set up to hunt him down.

Mbili's sister, Ross Harichand, said Mbili had fractured ribs and a lung was damaged.

But the family is "positive" that she will pull through.

"I was glad to hear her talk because it showed her brain had not been damaged," Harichand said.

She said the family had been inundated with messages from well-wishers following the publication of her story.

"So many people phoned me.

"It's nice to know there are people out there who care."