Durban – An Overport father is searching for their domestic worker because he believes she brutally attacked and stabbed the mother of his three children with a bread knife at their flat.
The man, who declined to be named, said his 48-year-old-wife, Fathima, was recovering in hospital after she was stabbed about 15 times in the head, neck and jugular.
Her hand was also injured as she tried to defend herself. Their 15-year-old son found her lying on the bathroom floor.
The domestic worker was on the run, said the husband.
Relating what happened, he said: “This woman, who was wearing a black Islamic cloak, came to our gate last Friday wanting a job.
“My wife felt sorry for her and because we did not have a maid, asked her to come the following day and on Monday (March 6). She was a quiet person and worked okay.”
He said she reported to work at around 8.30am and completed her chores by 2.30pm.
“On that Monday, she did the washing, swept and made the beds. Before leaving, she took our kitchen knife from under her dress and slit my wife's throat.
“While my wife was bleeding, she demanded my wife give her R35 000 in cash. My wife was somehow able to tell her we did not keep cash in the house. But the domestic worker said: ‘All you Sulimans have money.’
“She then started stabbing my wife and kicking her. After my wife collapsed, she thought she was dead and dragged her to the bathroom by her hair and covered her body with two mats.
“The maid then closed the door and went upstairs. She stole three laptops, cellphones and my wife's handbag, which had all her personal items, including her car keys.”
She had not taken the wife's cellphone, which was in the kitchen.
The husband said a neighbour heard his wife scream but had not alerted the police.
“She (the worker) placed everything in a knapsack and left as if nothing happened.”
He said he had picked up his 15-year-old son from school and dropped him off outside the flat before heading back for work.
“I called my wife on her cell and our son answered. He was in shock. He told me he heard a noise and found his mother lying in the bathroom and that I must come upstairs quickly.
“When I got there, she was battling to speak. She said: ‘I’m not making it’ and told our son to take care of his two elder sisters.”
When paramedics had failed to arrive, the husband asked for men to help him get his wife to hospital.
They carried the woman to his car and drove her to hospital.
“She was in ICU until Sunday. She is struggling to talk. My family, especially my son, is traumatised. The maid took everything she wanted. Why stab my wife so brutally?” he said.
He said had he or his wife kept a copy of the domestic worker's ID, as police repeatedly advised employers to do, it would have helped in the search for her.
They did in fact ask her for her ID twice but both times she claimed she had forgotten it.
Police spokeswoman Captain Nqobile Gwala said a case of attempted murder had been opened at Mayville SAPS.