Artist’s life ruined after home attack

[caption id="attachment_213540" align="aligncenter" width="469"] Artist Marie-Jose Hartmann with caregiver Anelisa Ndaninzi and ex-husband Mark Hartmann outside court
Picture: Eugene Coetzee[/caption]

Talented French painter no longer able to work after savage assault

A French artist who had a stroke following an horrendous attack in which her ear was ripped off, described yesterday how she had been admiring a painting which took her eight months to complete when she looked up and allegedly saw her former gardener standing in her lounge.

She said he had bizarrely had her panties pulled over his head in an attempt to disguise himself.

She felt a blow to her head and the next thing she remembered was waking up on the living room floor of her Richmond Hill home, where she was being strangled.

Little did Marie-Jose Hartmann know that that was the last painting she would ever do.

The brutal attack resulted in her having a stroke a month later.

At court yesterday, she struggled through a slight speech impediment – brought on by the stroke – to describe in detail the harrowing events of June 16 last year.

With a caregiver and her concerned ex-husband by her side, she was ushered into court in a wheelchair.

“The attack destroyed my life, I can’t use my right hand so I can no longer paint or take photographs,” she told the Port Elizabeth Regional Court through a thick French accent.

She moved to South Africa about 30 years ago.

Now, at the age of 58, her life had been placed on hold.

And while Hartmann believed the motive for the attack was anger – she had fired her gardener Mandisi “Welcome” Mkontwana two months prior – he spun a surprising tale of a love story between employer and employee.

Mkontwana, 31, and Simphiwe Simanga, 37, both of New Brighton, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

They denied they had been at Hartmann’s home the night of the attack.

Mkontwana said he had been in a sexual relationship with his former boss, who had been suicidal and lonely following her divorce from Mark Hartmann, the owner of the Summerstrand Hotel.

Hartmann said she had been alone at home in Richmond Hill, working on what she didn’t know at the time would be her final piece of art.

It was a warm evening so she left the sliding door ajar.

At about 11pm, she messaged Mark and her sons to brag about her painting.

“I was very proud. I was admiring my painting and the next thing I saw was Welcome in the lounge.”