Daughters made me suffer: mom

TWO sisters who swindled their mother out of a R2 million inheritance following the death of her husband, have each been slapped with a five-year suspended prison sentence.

“I didn’t know they were gunning for my money,” Zora Khan, 58, told POST soon after Durban magistrate Anand Maharaj on Friday convicted her daughters, Anisa Sayed, 39, of Phoenix, and Zaahidah Khan, 33, of Westville, of theft.

“I lost my husband and they had no mercy,” she said, adding she had initially intended to share her inheritance with them.

“I offered them R100 000 to go on pilgrimage but they told me it was peanuts.”

Maharaj said this was one of the saddest cases he had dealt with as it involved family members. “I once heard at a function that heaven lies at the feet of the mother.

“In this case the mother needed support but she became a victim of greed,” he said. “Throughout the case I have seen her pain and suffering. All she wants is her funds which no one had the right to take from her.”

The sisters were sentenced to five years in prison, suspended for five years on condition that they are not convicted of a similar crime during this period, and also that they repay their mother R750 000 each by the end of October.

After the father Wassir died in 2015, Sayed and Khan offered to help their mom with her financial affairs knowing he had left a lump sum for her. The pair told Zora that her sons would try to steal the money from her and convinced her to sign up for internet banking and hand over the passwords to them.

They then transferred money, on various occasions, from their mother’s account into two separate accounts without her consent or knowledge. Once, Sayed also called the bank claiming to be her mother and cancelled the SMS notification feature so she wouldn’t be alerted to transactions.

However, Zora realised something was amiss when she received an SMS from Capitec Bank saying she had no funds. She tried contacting her daughters, but they ignored her calls.

The pair were arrested in 2016 and granted R20 000 bail each.

On Friday, the sisters wore burkas as they sat silently in the dock. Once they were found guilty, members of their family cried while an emotional Zora looked on.

Their defence counsel, Saleem Khan, pleaded with the court to not impose any prison sentence as Sayed has two minor children, and was “severely physically challenged”. He said Khan has four minor children who depended on her at home.

Khan said the sisters, who went on pilgrimage last year, had donated a total of R150 000 to charity in the hope that the “blessings” from the deed went to their father.

Zora told the court all she wanted was her money.

“I tried several times to talk to them. I called their cell and their house phones but they never answered. My sons went to the house, they ignored them. I feel I should have my money,” she testified.

“Anisa has a freehold house in Phoenix, a car and a van which she says she sold. She is unemployed but collects money from the place she worked, probably because of her disability.

“Zaahidah has a maid, a house, two or three cars. They made me suffer, made me cry. When I needed them the most, they stole.

“They never apologised, they have no remorse. I just want my money, if not they must go to prison,” she sobbed.

Zora added she would forgive her thieving daughters “but God won’t forgive things like this, especially taking things from your mother”.