He claims that members of the store’s management were involved in the attack. He said he had no idea what provoked the incident, which led to a swollen eye and an ear injury.
He claimed one of his assailants kicked him in his testicles and stamped on him while he was on the ground.
Dr Sivakumar Venkataraman, Gebreye’s supervisor, said Gebreye was so traumatised he was considering abandoning his laser research project and going back to Ethiopia.
Dr Paul Motalane, manager for tertiary education programmes at the CSIR’s National Laser Centre, said he had been to the Spar to try and find out what happened, only to be told the manager was not available.
He accused the store of not taking responsibility for what had happened.
When the Pretoria News went to the Spar at around noon on Friday to investigate, our reporter was told to leave the store or be thrown out.
When the Pretoria News called the owner, who only gave his name as “Chris”, he declined to comment.
Police spokesperson Sergeant Lynnette Erasmus said a case of common assault had been opened.
