They came as robbers to a house in Lenasia but they left as murderers of a young boy. Angella Johnson reports on the killing that shocked a community
HE was only five years old. A boy delighted with himself after finding his lost piggy bank. But when Yaaseen Ebrahim rushed out of his room rattling the precious red and black box, he ran straight into a gang of robbers busy throttling his grandmother inside their home.
They stole his savings, strangled him with his mother’s scarf, battered his tiny body to death with his own cricket bat, and and then smothered him in a duvet.
The brutal and senseless murder of this innocent child has stunned the predominantly Indian community of Lenasia, near Johannesburg, and left his Muslim parents, Ahmed and Soraya Ebrahim, struggling to come to terms with the death of their youngest son.
The family’s domestic worker has been held and questioned by police after it was alleged that her boyfriend may have been one of the robbers-turned-killers.
Yaaseen’s grandmother Juleikha Saleh, who was looking after him at the time, was also beaten up by the gang who pushed a knife under her tongue and threatened to cut off her hand to get her gold bandles. They fled with several pieces of gold jewellery.
Tragedy struck the Ebrahim family last Monday morning when the gang of two or three men entered the house through a door, which the family claims had been left open, and grabbed Saleh (65) from behind.
They beat the frail old lady’s head against the hallway wall and gagged her with a towel she was carrying. Little Yaaseen, who was playing with his money box at the time, stumbled on to the scene and started screaming.
He was dragged into a back bedroom and beaten to a pulp with the same bat he had used to play cricket with his older brothers. Tall for his age and with a gangly athleticism, it appears that Yaaseen fought desperately with his attackers.
“When we saw him his tiny fists were shut in a tight ball as if he had put up a terrific struggle with the killer,” said his mother. “He was a brave boy and I know he would have tried to protect his gran.”
Heavily sedated and being comforted by a stream of relatives who, in accordance with Muslim tradition, will eat and pray for three days as they mourn Yaaseen’s death, Soraya Ebrahim wept silently as she talked about the child she described as her favourite.
“He was a lovely child, so loving and bright. I can’t believe that he’s gone – and in such a horrible way.
“He wanted to be a cricketer and he was very good at it … he had his whole life in front of him and those animals have robbed us of a chance to see him grow into a man.”
What has particularly devastated the couple is that the death was so barbaric and cold- blooded. “He was just a child. They could have just locked him in the bathroom, or even knocked him out,” she cried.
Her husband, eyes red and puffy from crying, explained that his mother only narrowly escaped being killed after the murderers were interrupted by a family member. “It was about 9am and my brother Essop had come to visit our mother when he spotted the maid standing about a block away. She became hysterical and said gunmen were in the house.”
The men, who only had knives, had already packed a large suitcase full of household goods. They had also moved the TV and video as if to transport them from the house, when the brother drove up and honked the hooter of his van.
He took up the story: “The neighbours came running immediately and there were some workmen next door who could also have been alerted if someone had just screamed for help,” he said. Three of the houses across the road are inhabited by family members.
In the end it was the maid who went into the house and emerged carrying the limp body of the child in her arms. The men escaped by jumping over the back wall. “There appeared to be a faint pulse and we rushed Yaaseen to doctor Goolan Moosa down the street, but his wife refused to let us in because she said the surgery was closed,” complained Essop.
Moosa, who has worked in the area for more than 20 years, says he was in the bath and did not hear the commotion. “It was my wife who turned them away and I have given her a good scolding. Although I am sorry that that happened it would appear that the child was already dead by then.”
The family, however, believe it might have been possible to revive Yaassen if he had been afforded quick medical assistance and plan to protest outside his house this weekend.
“As far as I’m concerned the doctor should be struck off for neglecting his duty and the murderers given the same sentence they gave my son,” said Ahmed as he called for a revival of the death penalty.
“Callous people like those who killed my son should not be protected by the law. They represent a lawless element in our society which should be stamped out before they can destroy anymore lives. Today it’s my son, but tomorrow it could be your child whose life is squeezed out of him.”