DAYS after an 11-year-old Zarah Ramsamy was tragically killed, a Bellair mother has spoken for the first time about how she begged and pleaded for her only daughter’s life to be spared.
In an exclusive interview with the POST, a devastated Shaida Ramsamy, 39, said while nothing could bring her daughter back, she and her husband Barnes, 50, and their two sons, Triston, 16, and Jeremiah, 14, wanted justice for their Zarah’s murder.
The family had recently attended Zarah’s annual school concert at Penzance Primary in Glenwood and had stopped at a fast food outlet in Malvern for supper to celebrate her “brilliant performance”, when they were accosted by hijackers.
Shaida said they had travelled in two vehicles.
Zarah and her tutor Deandra Moonsamy were seated in the backseat of her Toyota Fortuner. Her mother-in-law, Dolly Ramsamy, 74, was in the front passenger seat.
Barnes was travelling in front of them with their two sons in another vehicle.
“It was raining when we left the concert. When we reached the food outlet, I drove to the entrance to drop off my mother-in-law. My sons helped her get inside the restaurant. Barnes had gone to the toilet. I then drove to the parking lot,” said Shaida.
“I parked the Fortuner and got off. Zarah and Deandra jumped off on the left hand side of the vehicle. Suddenly, I saw a fat guy running towards me. He cocked his gun and said ‘give me keys, give me keys’. I told him I did not have the keys. I had given the keys to Deandra. In that time, two other suspects had accosted Zarah and Deandra. She then gave them the key,” she added.
Shaida said during the ordeal she could not see Zarah.
“The gunman took my cellphone and valuables. I begged him to give me my child. He just looked around and said ‘take your child’. I think that was when they accosted Deandra and Zarah. My baby must have seen the gun and thought it was just a robbery.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Zarah hunched and running to the front of the Fortuner. When she saw the suspect pointing the gun at me, she tried to run back, but realised that she was cornered on both sides. She then hid under the vehicle. After I gave them my valuables, I ran to get Zarah. But one of the suspects was already in the driver's seat and had reversed over her,” she said.
The distraught mother said despite all her efforts she could not stop the suspects from harming Zarah.
“I screamed at the driver and tried to stop him from driving over her again. I said ‘you ran over my baby’. He then jumped out of the car to check. I kept screaming ‘you ran over my child’.
“I saw the direction the tyre was facing and I jumped into the driver’s seat to try and move the car to free her. But the keys were not there. The suspect had taken it with him when he jumped out.
“The fat guy then pulled me out of the driver’s seat and jumped into the car. I was only focused on my baby under the car. I was looking at her. As he tried to drive off, I saw the tyre turn over her face and crush her. He reversed over her again. I was hysterical. I was just screaming,” said Shaida.
She said at this point, the suspect in the driver’s seat seemed unsettled and did not know whether to flee or not.
“His accomplices had already driven off in their car, so he had no other way to escape but to get back into the Fortuner and drove over Zarah. He knew that she was stuck under the vehicle and already badly injured. He pointed the gun at me. I didn't care. I was just screaming for my child. He just reversed over her and sped off. My baby was on the floor… lifeless,” said an emotional Shaida.
Barnes said while in the toilet, the security guard came rushing and told him that someone was being robbed outside.
“At that time, it didn’t register that it was them, but then I ran out of the toilet. Shaida was not inside the restaurant by this time. I ran outside and it was mayhem and chaos. My wife was screaming and jumping. The gunmen were still there. My son tried to get his mom. But I pulled him back because I was afraid she would get shot. I then realised that I could not see my daughter anywhere. I did not know that she was stuck under the vehicle,” he said.
Barnes said when the hijackers drove off, he ran to his daughter.
“There was blood shooting out from every part of her face. Her head injuries were serious. I put her in my car and drove her to the Ahmed Al Kadi Hospital. The doctors there tried everything. At first they couldn't get a pulse. Then there was a faint pulse. She was brain dead and doctors said she had lost too much blood. An hour later, doctors told me she didn't make it. My heart was broken,” he said.
He said in addition to their grief, they were also struggling to deal with the unfair speculation and judgement from social media users about what had transpired.
Barnes appealed for social media commentators to “stop playing the blame game and blame the right people, who are the criminals”.
“They were saying that Shaida should not have left her children in the car alone. My sons were never in her car. My daughter was not alone in the vehicle. The suggestion that my daughter died because my wife was negligent is unfortunate and unfair. It is putting further strain on our family,” added Barnes.
“The reality is that my daughter was killed because of the ruthless criminals targeting innocent people every day. Today it's my family. I would hate this to happen to anyone else.
“As Indians we are soft targets. It's terrible when we get people from our own community pointing fingers about whose fault it was. It is the criminals' fault. The criminals are out there partying and feasting but we are here, mourning and grieving. People cannot be telling us what we should or should not have done. My wife showed courage and did everything possible that a mother could have done,” Barnes said.
He said he prayed that Zarah’s death would not go in vain.
“Criminals are taking over and are bringing havoc into our lives. This was a serious and violent crime that ended in the worst case scenario for my family. We had high hopes for our child. She wanted to be a veterinarian. She had pet rabbits, a dog, a fish tank and a fish pond.
"She aspired to be a veterinarian. We see crime everyday on the news but now it has hit our home. I lost my only daughter. I appeal to the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, to take action.
“I would like to see him take on this case. I am confident that he can give us justice.”
He said in memory of his daughter, their church had renamed its holiday feeding programme, which benefited impoverished children, the Zarah Project.
“Zarah had contributed to a foundation and we did not know about it. A week ago, the church had thanked me for Zarah's monthly donation. I was surprised as she had not told me she had donated her pocket money.
“She was faithful. If Jesus said it, Zarah did it. She lived by the word of God and the verse, John 3:16: 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Shaida added: “She had told me that the scriptures from the book of Matthew was the map to heaven. She said ‘mummy, the easiest way to start is to give to the needy, so let’s start there’.”