Durban - He is known as someone who is always ready to help people, a “very godly man” who recently sang gospel songs during a church roadshow in Phoenix.
But, on Tuesday, the 45-year-old man appeared in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court in connection with the murders of Phoenix mother Jane Govindasamy, 45, and her daughters, Denisha, 22, and Rackelle, 16.
The murders have rocked Phoenix and have got detectives looking at various scenarios, motives and even suspects.
According to a police source, the alleged killer went to the family’s home on Thursday at about 2pm, on the pretence of wanting to use the toilet.
“An argument ensued between Denisha and him. He strangled and stabbed her before stuffing her body into a cupboard in her bedroom,” the source said.
“He was pacing up and down in the home when Rackelle arrived home from school. She asked him where her sister was and he said she was in the bedroom.”
The source said Rackelle went into the room to change and noticed a string near the cupboard.
“She opened the cupboard and found her sister’s body.
“She began screaming and the man grabbed her,” the source said.
“He suffocated her and placed her on the bed. Thereafter he claims he went blank.”
The alleged killer stayed in the home with the bodies until 5.45pm when their mother arrived from work, the source said.
“She asked him what he was doing at the home and then saw Rackelle’s body on the bed. He then shoved a pair of socks in her mouth and suffocated her. She was also stabbed.”
The source said the man then disconnected the television to make it seem like a house robbery.
Before appearing in court on Tuesday, the accused fainted and was given an IV drip by paramedics who were called.
His attorney, Chris Gounden, told the court that his client had a heart problem.
His submission that his client could not be kept at the Phoenix police holding cells as he claimed he had been assaulted, and also because there was no bed or TV in the cells, drew laughter from the public gallery.
The court ordered that the accused be kept at Westville Prison, although not in isolation as Gounden had requested.
It is believed that the accused has given police a statement in which he claimed to have had a romantic relationship with Jane for nine years.
He claimed he had recently found out that she was involved with someone else and intended leaving him.
Jane Govindasamy’s family, however, denied this and said the accused was not known to them.
The accused, a widower with two children, had worked as a tow-truck driver before being fired from his job on September 18 because of absenteeism.
He was arrested on Saturday morning at a bed and breakfast by Warrant Officers Bob Pillay and Sunil Sukdeo of the SAPS provincial organised crime unit.
Pastor Dan Marshall, of the Phoenix Ministers Fraternal, and a friend of the accused’s family, said he had known him as a “very godly man” who recently sang gospel songs during a church roadshow and had asked when the next one was taking place.
As a pastor, Marshall has been left disheartened that sin was now overriding the community.
“There are many incidents of murder, rape and robbery. If everyone was God-conscious, it would lead society to a better level.”
A neighbour of the Govindasamy's, who requested anonymity, described the family as very loving and always together.
“Sagren (the children’s father and Govindasamy’s husband) and Jane grew up in the same complex. They were sweethearts from the beginning,” he said. “Jane loved her family and her kids. She did everything for her family.”
The deputy principal of Rydal Park Secondary School, where Rackelle was a Grade 10 pupil, said her death was a huge shock to all who had known her. “She was a good pupil. We will be giving our tributes at her funeral on Saturday.”
Sagren, who turned 49 on Tuesday, declined to comment but his sister, Thaveshnie Naidoo, said she was devastated knowing that one man had “snatched” almost an entire family away.
During a visit to the home on Sunday, Police Minister Bheki Cele said more arrests were imminent.
“Males must stop thinking that they own women. Our crime stats show that a string of women are dying. I am making a call to men that women don’t belong to us. They are human. The day you put your hand on a woman you are not a man,” he said.
“If you can’t handle the woman, walk away.”