'My healing process is to empower others'

After being assaulted by an employee of a popular Durban radio station, the victim has decided to share the compensation money he received with local charities.

Leevashen Govender and his attorney, Theasen Pillay, this week handed a cheque for R10000 to the Durban Children's Home.

The funds form part of a settlement package Govender was awarded by KwaZulu-Natal-based East Coast Radio.

Govender and the station reached an agreement last month but the details of the settlement remain undisclosed.

This came in response to a letter of demand Pillay sent in April requesting over R300000 in compensation for the pain, suffering and humiliation he faced during his March visit to the station's headquarters in Umhlanga.

Govender said he attempted to offer afternoon newsreader Judith Subban, whom he had befriended on social networking site Facebook, a box of chocolates as a congratulatory gift after reading about her passing her postgraduate exams cum laude.

But Govender alleged that he was met by two staff members, who verbally and physically abused him.

Pillay told the Sunday Times Extra that his client wanted to give back to the community as part of his "healing process" to help "empower those who are subject to vulnerability and abuse".

East Coast Radio's public relations officer Lauren Holley said the station had "no further comment on this matter".