Siblings die in freak accident
TEARS streaming down her face, Keshia Moodley stood in the bitter cold with her cellphone on Durban’s Chris Hani Road frantically calling her sleeping parents.
It was to relay news no parent is prepared for: the death of a child.
Mika Moodley, 16, and his friends – brothers Moazzum and Mubeen Alli – were killed in a car crash.
Mika was a Grade 10 pupil at New West Secondary, Moazzum, 23, a technician at Altech and his brother Mubeen, 26, a partner in FR&R Tuning.
The trio were returning home to Newlands West after playing soccer when tragedy struck. A fourth passenger, whose identity could not be established, is in a stable condition in hospital.
According to reports from Netcare 911, eyewitnesses alleged the car lost control and crashed into a truck parked in the forecourt of a petrol station.
Keshia Moodley lost not only her brother, but two of her closest friends.
“Mika and I live in our family home with our grandmother because our parents live and work in Joburg. I met Mubeen and Moazzum when I started taking my car for repairs at Mubeen’s shop; we all became friends and they took to Mika as their little brother.”
Moodley said every Thursday from 9pm to 10pm the siblings and Mika would play soccer together at the sports ground at Crescent Girls’ School.
“Hours before the accident, I dropped Mika off at the grounds. Usually I would wait for him to finish and we would all go out to get something to eat before going home. That night it was too cold, so I left and told Mika I would fetch him later. But he insisted on coming home with Moazzum and Mubeen,” said Moodley.
When Mika did not arrive home by 12.30am, Moodley knew something was wrong.
“I tried to call my brother on his cellphone and it just rang. I tried Moazzum’s number and it went straight to voicemail. I called Mubeen and a relative answered and broke the news to me.”
She said her uncle had stayed at their home and they drove to the scene together, where they found Mika had died.
She then had the difficult task of telling her parents, Mervin and Kubee, that her brother had died.
“We are all shattered. Mika was my father’s right-handman and the apple of my mother’s eye. He was a warm, helpful person who dreamed of becoming an IT specialist.”
She said: “They loved cars. Apart from soccer, that is all they talked about. But I don’t believe they were racing. This was a freak accident.”
Describing Moazzum and Mubeen as inseparable, their cousin, Saajida Kader, said the brothers were go-getters with a bright future.
After matriculating from Hillcrest Secondary and studying motor mechanics, Mubeen opened a vehicle repair and modification workshop in Newlands with a friend. Kader said the business was thriving and had wanted to get his brother more involved.
Their parents, Salim and Hasina, and older brother Maqshood were devastated.
Kader said the siblings loved drag racing but the accident was not a result of racing and no other cars had been involved.
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane, said a case of culpable homicide was being investigated.