S. Africa Police Remove Woman, Threaten Lover : Black-White Romance Doesn’t Run Smoothly

Police escorted a white woman from her black lover’s home and returned her to her family, but the lover accused authorities of forcing her to leave him, a black newspaper reported today.

Police said Annette Heunis, who had left her family to live with Jerry Tsie, asked to be escorted out of the black township of Kutluanong in the Orange Free State.

But Tsie said police took the 20-year-old woman without consent, the newspaper Sowetan reported.

He said police told him that if he went to her home in the white town of Wesselbron, he would be arrested for trespassing.

Tsie said he received midnight telephone calls warning him that a “lovers hit squad” was preparing to kill him. He said the caller, speaking in a heavy Afrikaans accent, said they knew the route he took to work and they would get him.

The romance between Tsie and Heunis began last February on Valentine’s Day. The couple kept it secret until after the New Year when Heunis went public and immediately was shunned by her family and white friends.

Heunis told the Sunday Star newspaper two weeks ago that “I’ve found true love and I’m not about to give it up because of people’s narrow attitudes.”