‘I KILLED MY OWN SWEET SON’
‘Pure evil’ dad wanted to ‘get back’ at wife
DESPERATE to end the pain of seeing his family torn apart, Phoenix father Pravin Kubair took a washing line and walked his 4-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son to a local park.
There, he snuffed out the little boy’s life.
Rinaldo Elijah, a “loving, gentle, happy child”, whose dream was to one day become a pastor, died at the hands of his father.
“In the park I strangled my son… with the rope on his neck. When I could see that he was no longer moving I asked myself what was I doing and stopped,” Kubair admitted. “But it was unfortunately too late.”
Kubair last week pleaded guilty to the April 23, 2017 murder of his son, saying in his plea statement he had also planned to kill his daughter.
The girl had apparently fallen asleep at the park and had not witnessed her brother dying, he said.
He had taken them to the park at around 9pm that night intending to kill them both before taking his own life, he added.
This was all in a bid to “get back” at his wife, Lynnette Chetty, from whom he was separated.
Detailing the events that took place that evening, Kubair said he had sent his wife a WhatsApp message saying, “I am taking what’s mine” before going to his backyard and grabbing a rope he had used as a washing line.
After he had taken his son’s life, he said his cousin, Shaun Nadesan, called him and said that his family was looking for him. The police found him and the children near a sportsfield in Caneside. Rinaldo’s body was being carried, and the girl was walking beside him.
“They proceeded with us to the Whetstone Clinic where my son was declared dead,” Kubair said in his statement, read out by Legal Aid lawyer Sizwe Masondo in the Durban High Court.
He said he was remorseful for his actions but understood he needed to be punished.
“My conscience will haunt me for the rest of my life knowing that I had killed my own sweet innocent child.”
Kubair said while he committed a “dastardly act”, he had been “in a very bad space”.
“I felt like I was fighting a losing battle and it dawned on me that I was never going to be happy like I was during the earlier days of marriage,” he said. “I felt hopeless and meaningless and I believed that ending our lives was the best solution.”
The couple, who married in December 2009, had had a tumultuous relationship.
“We were a happy family. I loved my family and I still do,” he said. “Things started to turn sour when I lost my job.
“Consequently, I could not financially contribute or meet my responsibilities. I could not cope with this and eventually I turned to alcohol and I abused the alcohol.”
He admitted to becoming verbally and physically abusive to his wife.
When Chetty applied for a protection order against him, Kubair went to live with his mother and eventually got his old job back. The estranged couple agreed that he would see the children on weekends.
But Kubair said he became upset when the agreement was broken.
“On weekends she would refuse me access to my children because she was spending time with them and her family. I found her conduct to be very hurtful and I would often have to beg to spend time with my own children.”
However, the weekend of the murder, his children were with him. He said he had a few beers on the Sunday and sent his wife a text message saying he would drop off the children with her.
“She said I must bring them back on Monday. This lead to an argument because I was supposed to work on Monday and there was nobody to take the children to her. It felt like she was punishing me and that she didn’t care about me or my work situation. I got angry.”
He said that was when he took the decision to kill his children.
Judge Mohini Moodley accepted the guilty plea and convicted Kubair accordingly.
Sentencing is expected to be handed out in October.
Outside court, Chetty said it brought some sense of relief knowing that her husband had pleaded guilty.
“I can never understand why he would kill my son other than he is pure evil. My daughter still asks about my son. For her to grow up without her sibling is a challenge that we deal with every day,” she cried. “How do I tell my 4-year-old that her brother can never come back?”
Rinaldo was a Grade 2 pupil at Esselen Heights Primary.
Detective Warrant Officer Mark Perumal of Phoenix SAPS, the investigating officer in the matter, said now that Kubair had pleaded guilty, the sentence must fit the crime.
“Our justice system and law enforcement agencies need to send a strong message to would-be offenders that these types of crimes will be treated harshly. Criminals need to know that our law is sound and that once they are caught, it is not easy to get away.”