Durban -
Two mothers sat in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday divided by a few rows of seats and a huge gulf of emotion.
One was there to look into the eyes of the man accused of killing her daughter; the other, his mother, was hoping desperately to give her son a home-cooked meal.
Donovan Mark Ramdass had been expected to apply for bail.
He is accused of suffocating his girlfriend, Ashika Singh, of Merebank, with a plastic bag and fatally strangling her with an extension cord.
Singh’s mother, Dolly, made a gruesome find in March when she returned home from a casino.
The front gate to their home was jammed and she had to jump over the fence to gain entry. She found her daughter’s body in her bedroom with an extension cord wrapped around her neck and a plastic bag over her head.
Singh’s courtesy car, on loan from a panel-beating shop, was missing. It was later found in the Point area.
Ramdass, 30, handed himself over to the police soon afterwards. In addition to the murder charge, he has also been charged with theft.
At his initial court appearance, he did not apply for bail. Recently, however, through his new attorney, Clinton Short, he made such a request.
Singh’s family protested outside the court building yesterday in opposition to Ramdass’s being granted any bail.
They also handed a thick blue file to senior prosecutor Blackie Swart, which contain-ed a petition with more than 5 000 signatures by Merebank residents and people around the world who objected to any bail for Ramdass.
Inside court, Ramdass’s mother sat patiently waiting to see her son and hoping to give him some food she had brought.
Ramdass’s attorney was not present on Monday as the court heard he had been admitted to hospital. Swart said he had tried unsuccessfully to reach Short, and also said Ramdass’s mother had told him of Short’s hospital stay.
Magistrate Vanitha Armu asked Ramdass if he still wanted to retain Short as his attorney, and he replied that he did.
Swart told the court that the director of public prosecutions was still to decide whether the murder trial would be heard in the high court or the magistrate’s court, and that DNA results were still outstanding.
The matter was adjourned until next week.