Garage shooting: victim’s family speaks

Published Jan 26, 2015

Share

Cape Town - “He took the love of my life away – my last-born son.”

The mystery shooter who killed Moegamat Toufiq Joseph, 23, in a bizarre murder at the Engen garage on Orange Street in Gardens on Saturday did it for “no reason”, the victim’s father said on Sunday.

Ebrahiem Joseph, who used to run a fresh fruit and vegetable store in the city centre, said the killer had taken the “apple of (his) eye”. Toufiq was the youngest of three brothers, and his unexplained death has left the family in shock.

The shooter, a thick-set 48-year-old man in a grey tank top, was seen at the window of the car Toufiq was driving, possibly arguing, before he shot him in the stomach.

After killing Toufiq, the shooter smoked a cigarette and drank a Coke as he waited for police to arrive and arrest him.

The Weekend Argus reported that he was an off-duty security guard.

“He’s four times the size of my son,” Ebrahiem said. “He shot my son for no reason.”

In Woodstock on day, cars carrying Toufiq’s friends and family lined the pavements of Cornwall Street, where he lived most of his life with his parents.

A crowd gathered inside his home, spilling onto the porch as people travelled from as far as Joburg to comfort his mother and share their fond memories of Toufiq.

Ebrahiem remembered Toufiq as a baby, sitting contentedly in fruit boxes while his parents worked.

“When I was selling fruit and veg, and he was just three months old, we would put him in a banana box there on Parliament Street. He grew up there, until he was six and he went to school.”

His mother, Shariefa, was fast asleep on Saturday when her eldest son, Nazeem, called with the news. He had just identified Toufiq’s body.

Shariefa screamed hysterically when she heard her youngest son had been killed, but on Sunday her there was no tears as she remembered how he made her laugh.

“He was a sweet little boy, never rude,” she said. “He would always greet people in the street, he was very friendly. He had lots of friends.”

Toufiq never completed school, and preferred working with his hands.

“He wanted to be a welder,” Shariefa said.

Before he left on his fateful trip on Saturday, he visited his mother.

“He came back, gave me R200, and said ‘Mommy go buy yourself something’. That’s the last time I saw him.”

Time was ticking by painfully for the family on Sunday, as they waited to bury their son according to Muslim rites, but his body could not be released from the morgue because of problems with his ID documentation.

“They can’t let the body lie like that,” Shariefa said. “It makes it harder for us.”

The family hoped he could be laid to rest today.

Meanwhile, the suspect arrested for his murder is set to appear in Cape Town Magistrate’s Court today, according to police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut.

Multiple radio stations and online news sources reported yesterday that the shooter was in fact an organiser of a major upcoming music festival. The reports said the shooter had argued with Toufiq because he suspected him of selling fake tickets to the electronic music festival.

 

Toufiq’s close friend, Shameer Abbass, said he had bought tickets to the festival, but that the shooting had nothing to do with it.

“He had a contact with the tickets, but they weren’t fake tickets,” Abbass said. “They purchased tickets at the internet café and sold tickets.”

Abbass said his friend had had a “premonition” that danger was coming his way, and even shaved his head, saying he was ready to go.

“He had some kind of a premonition. On Friday, he was making jokes, saying if anything should happen to him he wanted us to remember him with a trance song,” Abbass said. “He’s not the type of person to show his emotions, but he called me at four o’clock in the morning to say he’s going to miss me. He said: ‘Shameer, thanks for being a good friend and having my back’.”

Abbass said he had known Toufiq since they were children.

“He was like a brother to me. He was funny without him knowing it. He would always make us laugh.”

Abbass visited the family on Sunday, where they all waited for answers in the inexplicable attack that claimed Toufiq’s life.

[email protected]

Cape Argus

Related Topics: