Murder accused in blame game

ONE OF the co-accused in the Zara Hector murder has confessed to helping move her body, but denied killing her, saying she was dead when he arrived.

Hector was allegedly bludgeoned to death by Renaldo van Rooyen and Tawfeeq Ebrahim. Her body was dumped on a farm in Groot Drakenstein.

The State submitted a confession by Ebrahim and a statement by Van Rooyen as part of its case. In the confession, Ebrahim admits to having been around when Hector was allegedly hit by Van Rooyen. He said the event had taken place in the garage at Van Rooyen’s home in Kuilsriver.

“I asked him if she is dead and he confirmed to me that she is dead. He then gave me plastic bags and we both put it on the floor. It was a big blue plastic bag. We put on surgical gloves before we moved her. 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.”

However, Van Rooyen pinned the murder on his co-accused.

“After I was done speaking to my mother I went back to the garage. 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 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 said, that Ebrahim had threatened him. “He said I had a beautiful family and he wouldn’t want to see anything happen to them.”

In court, Van Rooyen’s lawyer, Peter Burgers, challenged the State’s submission of the documents. He asked the court to block out parts in the statement where they made reference to one another.

State prosecutor Maria Marshall argued that the court should make its own unbiased decision. The evidence was accepted by Judge Lister Nuku.