Cape Town -
This weekend, as the first wave of protests outside the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court have died down, Rukshanna Hussain will have the sad task of sorting through the personal effects of her dead relatives and friends.
Her neighbours spared her from having to clean the bloodstained floors and furniture, but Hussain is the only person alive who knows which of the slain men the possessions in her home belonged to.
Her husband, Abid Hussain, is on a visit to Pakistan and will stay on to receive the bodies of his brother, his cousin and two friends. Before the bodies are flown out on Monday, Rukshanna hopes to have a package of Shahzad Ahmad’s possessions together.
“He was her only son,” she said of Ahmad’s mother.
Ahmad, 39, was one of four Pakistani men who died after masked gunmen stormed their home on Tuesday evening. The others were Ghulam Baqar, 23, Adnan Haider, 23, and Shafique Muhammad, 42. Two of their friends who survived are in Groote Schuur Hospital.
After the attack residents spoke fondly of Hussain, his business, family and strength of character. He had been living in Mitchells Plain for 16 years.
“If you were short of money, they would give you bread and some groceries until you could pay them back. When there was a funeral or sports day, they would donate food,” said one neighbour.
It is widely believed the killing was plotted by a certain business rival of Abid Hussain. Hussain runs a company, Eastern Distributors, and recently landed a lucrative contract with Albany Bakeries.
Rukshanna and her granddaughter, 12-year-old Robin-Lee van Nelson, were in the room when the three shots that killed Baqar were fired. This was followed by a barrage of gunfire in an adjacent room. As the assailants escaped with a safe, they shot Ahmad in the driveway of a neighbour’s house.
“I came outside with my gun drawn and saw Pomi (as Ahmad was also known) slumping over. As I ran past him I touched his shoulder, to comfort him. I walked into the street, took aim at the murderers, but there were innocent people in the street so I did not fire,” said the neighbour.
“When I returned, he was dead. A good man, we had been friends for years.”
Police arrested Lehano Jansen, 28, who appeared in Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court on Friday on four counts of murder, two of attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Outside the court, hundreds of Pakistanis and locals brandished placards bearing slogans such as “No Bail For Killers”, and chanting “We want justice”.
The case was postponed to April 10, and Jansen remains in custody. Ahmed’s uncle Javed Iqbal said: “
We have not told his mother, my sister. I am afraid that she will have a heart attack.”
Weekend Argus