Catzavelos family ‘living in fear’ amid death threats

The parents and siblings of businessman Adam Catzavelos, who has been widely reviled after posting a video in which he casually uses the k-word while on an oversees holiday, say they have been forced to go into hiding after receiving death threats, Sunday Times reports.

Adam’s older brother Nic, who says he feels betrayed by his brother’s actions, detailed a threat his father had received.

“This week while I was at my dad’s house the telephone rang. When dad answered the person on the other end said he was coming to kill him,” he said.

“We are terrified, I have never been afraid to live in my country before,” he continued.

“Now, when I walk to my mother’s house 800 metres away from my home, I look over my shoulder. We are living in fear.”

The eldest Catzavelos son told Sunday Times that Adam has brought “shame” on his family, who he added “have never harboured ill will towards anyone in SA.”

Nic added that he considers what Adam has done to be a “terrible thing,” and says his brother betrayed not only him but “his children, his children’s friends and the of colour he knows and is friends with.”

READ MORE: Video racist Adam Catzavelos finally breaks silence

He added that he fully understands the anger Adam’s video has caused, calling it “obscenely racist.”

St George’s Fine Foods, the family business that Adam previously worked for and held shares in, dismissed him following the incident. Nic says Adam’s shares have been taken from him and will be put in a family trust.

Despite this, many of the companies that the sauce, salad dressing and basting company works with have ended their relationship with the family.

Even Catzavelos’ wife’s company, Nike, was threatened by some with boycotts following the outcry that his video inspired.

Nic said that while he can not be sure if the threats the family had received are genuine or not, he has a responsibility to take them seriously.

“We have had to place our parents in a place of safety,” he says, adding that “we fear for our kids when they have to return to school, although staff have been supportive.”

He went on to say: “In the space of four days our lives have disintegrated.”

Nic says that despite all of the anger he currently feels, he won’t abandon his younger brother.

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