A father of three was stabbed to death by a man who allegedly terrorised and accused his mother of performing “black magic”.
As the 29-year-old suspect appeared in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on Monday on a charge of murder, Rajendran Pillay’s wife Denice performed the last rites at his funeral. The couple have three children aged 12, 6 and 16 months.
Pillay’s father, Soobramoney Naidoo, believes his son could have been saved had he not been allegedly turned away by a doctor as he did not have medical aid.
On Saturday evening, Pillay, 34, and Naidoo, 50, both tradesmen, were returning to their Eastbury, Phoenix, home when Naidoo received a frantic call from his wife Rani, 56, informing him that a man was breaking their windows and accusing her of black magic.
“My wife was fearful for her safety and afraid that the suspect might try to get into the house to hurt her. When my son and I returned home the man disappeared.
“I went to the toilet and my son, who was outside, was told by some of the boys in the area that the man had run off to a nearby house.”
Pillay, one of his sons and a 14-year-old neighbour jumped into Naidoo’s Nissan Navara to look for the suspect.
“My son saw him running on the road and managed to corner him with the van,” said Naidoo. “As Rajendran got out of the vehicle he (the suspect) started stabbing him. My son was stabbed twice in the chest and once in the hand. The man ran off.”
Naidoo said neighbours had alerted him to the incident.
“I was in shock. I arrived at the scene to find my son bleeding profusely. All I could think about was saving him.
“I carried him to the back of the van and rushed him to a doctor’s surgery… I spent 15 minutes trying to get medical help for him but they refused because we were not on medical aid,” he said.
“I am in shock and I am so angry because if I had taken him to another clinic or the hospital, I could have saved his life.
“I can’t understand why this man would attack my son. He knew my family very well; I used to give him money and cigarettes,” he said. “We had a good relationship.”