Cape Town - One of the co-accused in the Zara Hector murder trial confessed to helping move the body, implicating his co-accused in the murder. But Renaldo van Rooyen denies killing Hector, saying when he returned to the scene of the murder, Tawfeeq Ebrahim had already killed her.
The contradictory versions of events played themselves out in two parts - a confession by Ebrahim, and a statement by Van Rooyen.
Hector was bludgeoned to death and her body dumped in a farm in Groot Drakenstein.
In his confession, Ebrahim admits to have been around when Hector was allegedly hit with a hammer five times by Van Rooyen. He said the incident took place in the garage of Van Rooyen’s Kuils River home.
"I asked him (referring to Van Rooyen) if she is dead and he confirmed to me that she is dead," Ebrahim's confession read. "He then gave me plastic bags and we both put it on the floor. It was first blue bags. It was a big blue plastic bag. We put on surgical gloves before we moved her into the plastic bag.
"Once she was in the blue plastic bag he gave another big piece of plastic bag. It was a piece of plastic you use to put paint on," the confession submitted to the Western Cape High Court read.
Zara Hector was found dumped on a farm in the Klein Drakenstein, 10 days after she disappeared in March 2016. Picture: Supplied
But, in a statement submitted to court, Van Rooyen pinned the murder on his co-accused.
"After I was done speaking to my mother I went back to the garage," his statement read. "When I got there I saw Tawfeeq with a hammer in his hand. I immediately looked at Zara and saw blood running out of her mouth. I immediately confronted him and wanted to know what he had done.
"He pleaded with me to be silent.
"He then whispered: 'I have been waiting all my life for something big.' I immediately turned around and wanted to tell my mom what had happened. Tawfeeq followed me and just before I got to the kitchen he stopped me."
It was then, Van Rooyen claimed, that Ebrahim threatened him.
"He said I had a beautiful family and he wouldn't want to see anything happen to them."
Read both the full confession and full statement below