Tariq’s brother: forensic bungle

Cape Town. 050112. Tohier Davids at the site where the body of two year old Tariq Jacobs were found after a search in the area where he went missing. Picture Leon Lestrade. Story Henriette Geldenhuys

Cape Town. 050112. Tohier Davids at the site where the body of two year old Tariq Jacobs were found after a search in the area where he went missing. Picture Leon Lestrade. Story Henriette Geldenhuys

Published Jan 7, 2012

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Nearly four years after the death of one of Zulpha Jacobs’s two toddler sons, police are still awaiting the toxicology report done on Sabré Jacobs.

Western Cape police are investigating Jacobs’s role in not only the murder of her son Tariq Jacobs, whom she confessed to killing last Thursday, but also in the death of her other son, Sabré, who was also two when he died in Mitchells Plain in May 2008.

Police are unable to establish whether Sabré swallowed a toxic substance, or whether his mother could be linked to his death, because the toxicology report is still outstanding.

The report would indicate whether he died from causes other than a suspected asthma attack. But his is among 15 000 toxicology reports still outstanding nationwide.

The national Health Department, which manages the forensic laboratory responsible for the reports, has admitted to the backlog.

 

Spokesman Fidel Hadebe said toxicology reports in Cape Town took an average of five years to complete.

This meant Sabré’s report is likely to be available only next year, or even later.

 

This week, relatives who witnessed Sabré’s death spoke about what happened the day the child died.

He and his mother were reportedly alone together in a room at the home of Zulpha’s in-laws in Rondevlei Park, Mitchells Plain, when she called out that the boy was turning blue, and struggling to breathe.

Her sister-in-law, Tawgheeda Davids, and mother-in-law Farida Davids jumped into a vehicle with the two and rushed to boy to a local trauma unit. His grandmother was administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation en route.

According to the family, he was still breathing when they arrived at the hospital, but died shortly afterwards.

 

“The doctor tried to save his life, but said his lungs were too weak. Zulpha fell into my mom’s arms and cried,” Tawgheeda recalled.

Relatives said Sabré may have swallowed bleach a week before he died, because the family found him on the bathroom floor with a bottle of Jik.

But they all believed asthma was the most likely cause of his death, since the boy suffered from the illness.

Last week Western Cape police spokesman Warrant Officer November Filander said the boy’s mother was being investigated in connection with the deaths of three of her children – Tariq, Sabré and Naeelah, a 21-month-old daughter who died in 2001. A fourth child was stillborn.

 

But a few days later, Filander ruled out foul play in Naeelah’s death.

He said her autopsy report showed no one could be held responsible, and that she had “suffocated after swallowing food”.

However, Filander confirmed the toxicology report in Sabré’s case was “still awaited”.

He also confirmed Zulpha remained a suspect in the child’s death.

Tariq was born more than a year after Sabré’s death, and was reported missing by his mother last Thursday.

The 30-year-old crèche teacher and former swimming pool lifeguard accompanied Captain Amanda van Niekerk in a frantic search for the boy, handing out pamphlets and showing people his picture. Her 25-year-old husband Walied, a cleaner at the Tyger Valley shopping centre in Bellville, was searching along the railway line with his nephews.

Last Saturday Tariq’s body was found on dunes in a shallow grave, lying face-down with his arms spread to the side. Shortly afterwards, police announced the child’s mother had confessed to murdering him, and she was arrested.

 

While the rest of the large extended family, including Walied, buried Tariq at an emotional ceremony on New Year’s Day, Zulpha remained in custody.

Walied has hardly spoken since Tariq was found dead, spending most of his time alone in the room he shared with Tariq in Cricket Crescent, Beacon Valley, in Mitchells Plain, for half of each week.

He and Zulpha have been separated since October last year, after being married since 2004.

Although Walied, who has now lost his only two sons, has not returned to work since Tariq’s body was found, and is keeping to himself, his sister Tawgheeda said she

sits down behind him frequently, and holds him tight in an effort to comfort him.

“I tell him we’re all here for him, that we’re all standing by him and supporting him,” she said.

(But) it’s almost like he’s in a trance.”

- Zulpha Jacobs is expected back in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court for her second appearance on Monday. - Saturday Argus

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