Durban - RASHEEDA Cassim dreamed of buying a home for herself and her children, but on Sunday night, her body was found on her bedroom floor in her rented outbuilding.
Cassim, 37, of Hummingbird Avenue, in Extension 1, Lenasia, had been stabbed in the neck.
The mother of five, who shared custody of her five children with her former husband, owned a delivery business. The children are aged 12, 10, 9 and 5-year-old twins.
Her sister, Aneesa Cassim, said they found out about the killing after her sister’s employee arrived at the property that evening.
“He arrived to do his daily cash drop-off. He called out for my sister from the roadside but she did not respond. He called her, but her cellphone had been switched off,” said Cassim.
She said the employee then called their dad.
“When we tried to call Rasheeda, there was also no response. I called a relative, who also lives in Lenasia, and asked him to check up on her. But there was still no answer.
“He managed to locate the landlords, and they opened the driveway gate.”
She said Rasheeda’s front burglar gate and the door were unlocked. “They found her laying on the bedroom floor covered in blood. There was only blood on the bed and the floor. She had several stab wounds to the neck area.”
Cassim said there did not appear to be forced entry, and that her sister’s cellphone, laptop and purse were missing.
“There wasn’t damage to the gate, door or windows. Also, everything else in the house was still in its place.”
Cassim said her sister was divorced and the children spend alternate weekdays and weekends with her.
That weekend they were with their dad. She said she last spoke to Rasheeda on Saturday.
“It was our usual conversation. She told me the business was growing and that she could not wait to buy a house for her and the children as she was renting in an outbuilding.
“My sister deserved to be happy. She was kind-hearted and charitable, and she took care of everyone in the family.
“She was also spiritual. We want the person or people responsible to be caught and given a life sentence for taking her life and robbing her children of their mother.”
Captain Mavela Masondo, a Gauteng police spokesperson, said a case of murder was being investigated.
Rasheeda was buried at the Avalon Cemetery on Monday.
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