An eyewitness has come forward to describe the massacre of four Pakistani men in Mitchells Plain last month.
|||Cape Town - An eyewitness has come forward to describe the massacre of four Pakistani men in Mitchells Plain last month.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Voice, the woman told how she came face-to-face with one of the gunmen before he blasted the four men to death.
“It was terrible – they came into the house and shot everyone,” the distraught eyewitness said.
“I thought it was just a robbery, but then the gunman shot everyone.”
Dressed in parda (Islamic attire covering the face), the 57-year-old woman is now living in fear for her life.
She bravely spoke out as Lehano Jansen, 28, Moegamat Nasief de Villiers, 34, and Yazeed “Wildskit” Hendricks, 41 made their second court appearance at the Mitchells Plain Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
All three men will be applying for bail.
They are accused of murdering Muhammed Shafique, 42, Adnan Haider, 23, Ghulam Bajar, 23, and Shazad Ahmad, 39, at the Uranus Street home in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain, on March 19.
Two other Pakistani men were wounded during the shooting.
The three men all face charges of murder, attempted murder, house robbery, car hijacking and possession of an illegal firearm.
The house was used as a bakery and police believe a business feud involving bread distribution is the motive.
The distraught eyewitness and a female relative – also dressed in parda – arrived at the courthouse on Wednesday to face the men cops say murdered their loved ones in cold blood in front of them. The woman took the Daily Voice back to the scene of the murder, dramatically recalling the fatal night.
She, her 12-year-old granddaughter and another woman had been watching television in the first bedroom next to the lounge.
Inside her bedroom, the woman pointed to a little corner between the bed and a cupboard where the first murder took place.
She indicated a bullethole on the cupboard and pointed to her bed where she had been watching television.
The woman says her granddaughter lay on the floor drawing. The other woman was sitting on the single bed.
She recalls how the gunman stormed into the room pointing a pistol at Ghulam Baqar.
And she claimed the killer demanded Ghulam open the safe and identify himself.
“The door was closed and the light was off,” she told the Daily Voice.
“When he [gunman] entered, he put the light on.”
The terrified woman said she knows the identity of the gunman, but we cannot reveal his name for legal reasons.
She explained how the killer then ordered the terrified Pakistanis to “lay still”.
He ordered Baqar to identify himself – and then opened fire on the victims.
The gunman fired up to 40 rounds, killing the four Pakistanis.
“It was five minutes and then everything was over,” the witness said.
The woman says when she rushed to the front door to tell the neighbour to call the police and ambulance, she saw a black bakkie in the road.
She claimed the gunmen also opened fire on her neighbour.
The woman later found a single bullet – a 9mm next to the chest of drawers – which she says police have not yet collected.
Earlier in court, Magistrate Walter Golding told the suspect Hendricks that the bullet lodged in his pelvis – which doctors had examined at Groote Schuur hospital – was an old projectile.
Golding had ordered the bullet be removed as the State believed it could place Hendricks at the murder scene.
But Hendricks’ lawyer said his client claimed the bullet was from another incident and had been lodged inside the suspect for 18 years.
And Golding announced De Villiers would be transferred from Goodwood to Pollsmoor Prison because he claimed his life was in danger.
De Villiers claimed a gun had been found in the cell next to him and that he received threatening messages.
The case resumes on May 27.
Daily Voice