Family struggles to reopen slain Pietermaritzburg woman's company

Slain businesswoman Kavitha Nerputh's weight-loss business was expected to reopen a week after her murder. However, clients were informed on Monday that it would be closed until further notice.

It is believed Nerputh's two children, 22-year-old Aryana and 19-year-old Junior, both law students, have taken over the running of the company that sold Foreverwell Tea.

Nerputh mostly used social media to promote and run her business.

On Thursday, a post on Foreverwell Tea's official business page on Facebook informed clients that the business would be up and running on Monday.

However, on Monday morning, the family said it was not ready.

“On behalf of our family, we thank you all for being so supportive and understanding through this very difficult period. Unfortunately, I am unable to keep up to my previous post. I am trying my best to reopen the business and take orders as soon as possible. Please bear with us as we try our utmost best to be able to serve you. We will open soon,” the post said.

Nerputh, a well-known Pietermaritzburg businesswoman and socialite, was strangled with a cellphone charger cord and left in her locked car at Alexandra Park a week ago.

Before the incident, she said she was being followed and her home “staked out”.

A police source told Times Select that investigators had discovered Nerputh’s home was being “observed” during the weekend before she was killed.

The source confirmed Nerputh had gone to the police station that weekend because she feared for her life.

Aryana and Junior reportedly told The Witness their mother was emotional and scared on Sunday. She also has a six-year-old daughter.

Junior told the Pietermaritzburg-based newspaper that his mother had gone to the police on several occasions begging for more security and for them to take action on a protection order she had obtained.

In the past two years, Nerputh was embroiled in several harassment issues and had been issued with protection orders.

In March last year, the Pietermaritzburg magistrate's court granted a protection order against her former friend, Yugeshnie Reddy.

The court found Reddy had harassed Nerputh on social media after their friendship  soured.

Fake Facebook profiles were created to slander Nerputh by calling her a sex trader and prostitute.

The businesswoman spent R100,000 on her youngest child’s fourth birthday in 2017.

“I have taken a lot of flak for throwing such an extravagant party for my daughter, but when it comes to my children I don’t have a limit,” she said. “People spend more money on weddings and adult parties, and people say nothing.”

On her Facebook page, she frequently posted photos of her three children and called them "her life".

No arrests have been made.