A Gauteng woman and her young daughter were left traumatised after she was assaulted for speaking to her child in English.

Patricia Ngobeni from Boksburg in Ekurhuleni sustained an injury to her hand after an unknown man attacked her while she and her six-year-old were buying pies at a local shop on Saturday last week.

Ngobeni, 29, told Sunday World that it was a Saturday afternoon when she decided to go for a walk in town and bond with her daughter.

She said they decided to go get some pies during their walk and little did they know that an attack was awaiting at a local pie shop that they have frequented before.

"When we arrived at the store, there was a Zulu-speaking man, who could be in his 50s, who was also there to buy a pie. After I picked a pie that I wanted, my daughter, speaking in English, picked hers. That's when hell broke loose.

"The man attacked me by first poking his wallet into my eye and I retaliated by kicking him. He told me that he would kick me in the face. He then pushed me against the pie warmer and I fell on the floor and he continued to kick me.

"He told me I was stupid for speaking to my daughter in English yet white people don't speak our languages."

Ngobeni later opened a case with the local police.

Police spokesperson Justice Ramaube confirmed that a case was opened but no one has been arrested yet.

"I can confirm that a case of common assault was opened, but no one was arrested and investigations are continuing" said Ramaube.

Ngobeni said what hurt her the most about the incident was that her attacker seemed to have judged her without knowing her circumstances.

"He can't teach me how to raise my child or which language I must use to talk to her.

"What if I'm coloured? Or what if my daughter was fathered by a coloured?

"I don't understand why people walk around carrying so much anger in them and they take it out on the wrong people.

Ngobeni said her daughter was still traumatised by the attack and, for that reason, she would leave no stone unturned to get the culprit arrested.