Attemped Assualt by Security on a Tenant and Poor Recourse by Estate Manager and Agent.

Today I had one of the worst experiences of my life in my own estate where I am supposed to feel safe.

I live in Four Leaf Estate in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and had a guard named 'Zembe' attempt to assault me with a baton for asking for his full name, I had an estate manager named Pieter who didn't care for my side of the story, immediately sided with the guard who tried to assault me and spoke to me like I was a child. I also had an estate agent named Tamsyn Pillay who completely refused to give me the full names of anyone involved and who called me 'disrespectful' for getting upset before ignoring me completely.

Before I start I would just like to clarify that I have been staying at Four Leaf Estate for nearly a year now and I have never had any issues, All the other security guards that work here love me and we always get along, I pay my bills on time and the living experience has been very pleasant until my experience today...

It started out like any other day, I booked an Uber for my wife to work and the taxi arrived at our boom gates as per usual. After 15 minutes our taxi contacts us and informs us that the security guard is not letting him in and is requesting our phone number. (Uber does not have access to customer cell numbers for safety reasons.) This is odd as I have never had the security ask for my number because they have the phone number for every unit in the estate. I reluctantly supply my number and get a call from the guard. I tell him no problem, please let my taxi into the estate and he hangs up. After another 10 minutes of waiting my uber driver informs me that he still is not being let in. I phone the guard and ask what is happening, after some frustration I ask the guard for his full name because I would like to report him to the estate for wasting my time and making my wife late for work. The guard then tells me 'NO! Come to the gate and you can have my name!' and hangs up. At this point, I am furious and walk all the way through the massive estate to the gate to see what is happening. When I arrive the guard gets a fright and opens the gate for the taxi. I proceed to ask him why he did that and to give me his full name to which he refuses again and gives me the name 'Zembe' or 'Zemba'. I begin writing this down whilst asking for his surname, he then mutters some swear words under his breath as if I cannot hear him. Shocked, I look up at him and ask what he just said before saying the exact same words back to him. At this point, he loses his temper and turns around, runs into his security booth, and comes running out at me with his Baton in hand. At this point, I felt extremely threatened and ran away whilst taking my phone out to film his actions as he chased me with the weapon. The moment he saw me filming he quickly stopped and retreated to his security booth. Fearing for my safety I went back to my house and immediately phoned my estate agent Tamsyn and explained what happened. She was naturally shocked and asked that I come back for a meeting at the security office so we can resolve the situation.

I agreed and immediately walked back to the boom gates to find Tamsyn standing with 'Zembe' who tried to assault me. She explained that we are waiting for the estate manager and I said no problem. We had a small chat about the experience and she apologized and said we will sort the problem out. We then proceeded to wait for 20 minutes in the sun whilst the guard gave me dirty looks the entire time making me feel unsafe once more.

'Pieter' the estate manager then arrives and climbs out the car at the boom gates. He doesn't greet me or anything. He then calls the guard over and asks him what happened. The guard begins explaining the whole story from his point of view whilst Tamsyn and I are still standing in the sun just watching on. This already upset me as it felt like he cared more about the guards' side of the story than mine. I shrugged it off and waited in the sun for him to finish telling his side of the story. The guard was clearly lying to try and protect himself which upset me even further.

The guard finally finished talking and Pieter climbed in his car and drove off to the office without saying a word to me. Tamsyn and I walked through to the office and I thought to myself 'Finally I can explain my side of the story'. I then walk up and greet Pieter at his car, to my dismay the guard is following right behind me and walks into the office with us. We all sit down to resolve the issue and then 'Pieter' looks at the guard and says "Tell me what happened". This really began to upset me at that point because I was not being asked for my side of the story first which seemed only fair as I was the one almost assaulted. The guard then begins his story over again and mentions that he was "Trying to find my number". This upset me so much because he was lying and I was not being given a chance to talk.

I then interrupted the guard and said "He is lying! I have the proof on my phone that he didn't try to find my number." Pieter then interrupts me by raising his voice and tells me to be quiet and let 'Zembe' finish his story. This immediately sent me over the edge with anger as he just spoke to me as if I am a child. I raised my voice and said "We just heard his side of the story while we were waiting in the sun for thirty minutes! Don't raise your voice to me!"

Pieter then refused to lower his voice and talk me like an adult so I threw up the middle finger and walked out. I was the victim of an attempted assault and now I have to sit and hear his story TWICE before anyone will even listen to me speak. Pieter clearly cares more about his security guards than he does the tenants that live here. All I wanted was to have my side of the story heard first, as I was the victim in the situation but all I got was disrespect and poor manners.

Tamsyn then told me that she and Pieter would like to come and resolve this issue at my place. I agreed and waited outside my front door. The moment they arrived I asked if they will now listen to me speak and hear my side of the story. Pieter was still being extremely rude and couldn't understand why I got upset back in the office. I tried explaining my story and they just couldn't seem bothered at all, they were more concerned about my actions in the office and kept calling me rude and disrespectful towards them. I apologized for losing my temper in the office and asked that some sort of action is taken against the guard. Pieter then agreed to take action before stating that "Not even children act the way you did back there." Clearly still not understanding why I was upset.

Feeling like nothing was going to be done about it, I asked for proof that action has been taken against the guard. I also asked Tamsyn for the full name, company name, and contact details of Pieter and Zembe but she has since ignored me flat.

I phoned Similan Properties to ask for the full names and they also refused so I am forced to file this complaint under Similan Properties.

I mainly wanted to write this so that people can finally read my side of the story seeing as they didn't care.