Durban - Penny Sparrow’s daughter said she was “mortified” by her mother’s racist comments and was extremely angry with what she said.
“If you have an opinion (like that) keep it to yourself,” Charmaine Cowie, who runs a landscaping and nursery business in Park Rynie, told the Daily News on Monday.
She said her mother came to her business on Monday and told her she had made a “terrible mistake”.
Cowie said she did not know how serious the matter was until she went online and saw the angry messages.
Not long after talking to her mother, Cowie said she took a call from an unknown man whose number was from the US, warning her to prepare for the coming storm.
A few minutes after receiving the call, Cowie said she started to receive threatening calls and messages.
She said the calls continued for the entire day.
She believes someone took a picture of her business and posted it on Twitter to advertise her number.
While the Daily News was interviewing her, she fielded numerous calls where she had to explain she was not Penny Sparrow.
Cowie said she read on Twitter that a bus load of people would come to her landscaping business to protest.
“I am absolutely terrified,” she said.
Her extended family was also scared, she said.
The mother-of-two said she sent her younger daughter to stay with her father because she feared for her safety.
“My other daughter is on holiday and that’s where she will stay.”
Cowie said her mother was “extremely stressed”.
She was also scared her health would get worse because she was a diabetic.
“She’s sickly and had pneumonia a few months ago and we nearly lost her,” she said.
Thule Khomo, a worker at the nursery, said she was surprised by what happened.
“She (Sparrow) is someone who talked nicely to us, but I did not know she had this sort of problem,” Khomo said.
Cowie’s partner, Morton Keightley, said he was worried about her.
“Her mom is not around and she is bearing the brunt of it.
“It can lead to a lot of repercussions and could tarnish her name for good.”
Daily News
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