Durban — Chatsworth resident Sangetha Prithipaul described to the Durban High Court on Wednesday how her mother, Jinsee Ram, was pinned against the wall and throttled by a man wearing a balaclava.
Prithipaul was giving evidence during the trial of the accused after her mother was killed and she was physically assaulted during a house robbery in Chatsworth in February 2020.
“After walking to the room and seeing my mom being throttled, instantaneously, a second unmasked man appeared inside the bedroom.
“When I began screaming, he grabbed my throat and started throttling me.
“He then took me by the neck and slammed me to the ground. He began pounding my head continuously on the ground, and I lost consciousness,” Prithipaul told the court.
Prithipaul said when she came to, the masked man was wrapping some sort of cotton around her mother’s neck and began strangling her.
Bheki Msomi stands accused of murder, attempted murder, and robbery with aggravated circumstances.
He had initially been charged with Simphiwe Cele, who was Jinsee’s employee.
However, Cele was deemed unfit for trial and is currently at a state psychiatric hospital.
Prithipaul said she did not know what the cotton-like material was that the masked man was using to strangle her mother.
“My mom was lying face up on the ground opposite me, and her head was against the masked man’s legs, and I could see what he was doing.
“At that point, the unmasked man who was assaulting me initially came from behind me, and knelt down and started pounding my head on the ground again. I lost consciousness again.
“When I regained consciousness, I immediately saw someone that I recognised in my line of vision, and that was Simphiwe. He was rummaging in the cupboards. He later put on the balaclava again,” she told the court.
Prithipaul has said that the masked man and Simphiwe were the same person.
At this point, in an effort to establish her mother’s condition, Prithipaul nudged Ram with her foot, but she did not respond.
Prithipaul said that soon after this, a third unmasked man, wielding a knife, came into the room and moved aggressively towards her as Simphiwe took out sellotape.
Prithipaul said the tape was placed across her mouth and around her head.
She told the court that, at one stage, she had to pull the tape down because it covered her nose and obstructed her breathing.
“The tape, at some stage, got stuck on Simphiwe’s shirt, showing his protruding belly button, which I recognised,” she said.
Prithipaul said the knife-wielding third unmasked man began screaming “money” and grabbed both her wrists, which were by then taped together.
“The bare-faced black man with the knife grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet, pulling me out of my mother’s room.
“I tried to look at my mom to see if she was okay, but both her eyes were open, and she was motionless.”
Prithipaul also told the court that her family had known Cele for more than 30 years.
They had come to know him from his uncles and cousins for doing construction work for her father, and her family had employed him thereafter.
Prithipaul said that he had worked for her mother in her marquee and chair hire business, and he also had done some construction work at her mother’s takeaway shop at nearby factories.
The trial continues on Thursday (today), with the State expected to call three more witnesses, including the investigating officer and Msomi’s sister.
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