‘I didn’t kill Zarah, he did’

Ebrahim confessed to only helping move her body.

But co-accused Renaldo van Rooyen denies killing the mom of two, contradicts this, saying that when he returned to the scene of the murder - his garage in Kuils River - Ebrahim had already killed her.

Ebrahim revealed this in a confession to police, while Van Rooyen made a statement.

Zarah’s body was found 10 days after she disappeared in March last year, dumped on a farm in Klein Drakenstein.

In his confession, submitted to the Western Cape High Court, Ebrahim admits he was at Van Rooyen’s house when Zarah was bludgeoned with a hammer.

Zarah Hector

Both men claim the other threatened them to help get rid of her body.

“I asked him if she is dead and he confirmed to me that she is dead,” Ebrahim’s confession read.

“He then gave me plastic bags and we both put it on the floor. It was first blue bags. It was a big blue plastic bag. We put on surgical gloves before we moved her into the plastic bag. Once she was in the blue plastic bag, he gave another big piece of plastic bag. It was a piece of plastic you use to put paint on.”

OUT FOR JUSTICE: Zarah’s brother, Brendan Hector, left

Zarah’s body was found rolled in black plastic by workers who complained of an awful smell.

The accused agreed on a number of points, including:

* That Zarah came to Van Rooyen to borrow money on 14 and 15 March 2016 and that he told her he did not have any,

* That on 15 March Van Rooyen made them all coffee and Zarah was murdered

* The route they took to the farm to dump the body and where it was dumped

* And that Van Rooyen’s parents were home during the incident.

But that’s where their similarities end.

According to Ebrahim, Van Rooyen was an old hand at disposing of bodies, but told him to make the decisions on this occasion as it was his first time.

“I asked him what does he normally do, and he told me that he buys petrol and burns the body out, then there’s no evidence,” Ebrahim’s statement read.

“Renaldo insisted I earn his trust by helping to get rid of the body.”

But Van Rooyen claims he was afraid of Ebrahim: “He intimidated me and said he knew people who could hurt my family. Right there I started fearing for my life and the lives of my family.”

PLAN: 'Van Rooyen wanted the BMW and sell it for the cash Zarah owed him'

According to Ebrahim, Van Rooyen had been “planning for days” to take the BMW Z3 and sell it for the money he said Zarah owed him.

But Van Rooyen claimed when Zarah couldn’t get more money from him, she started making plans to sell the car herself.

Ebrahim said Van Rooyen had “hit Zarah with the hammer from behind about five times in the garage”.

But according to Van Rooyen: “I left the garage and came back to find Zarah bleeding from the mouth and Tawfeeq with a bloody hammer in his hand.”

They then claim the other drove the BMW Z3 to dump Zarah’s body, and later went to Bishop Lavis to find a buyer for the car, while the other went to smoke tik.

Earlier in court, defence lawyers Peter Burgess and Wimpie Strauss asked for the statements to be edited to blank out certain parts which implicated their clients, insisting promises were made to get their clients to speak.

ISSUES: Advocate Maria Marshall

Burgess, representing Van Rooyen, said: “Accused number 2 [Ebrahim] was promised visitation with his two children at his home to make his confession/statement.”

But State prosecutor Maria Marshall said the statements should be admitted as they were obtained

correctly.

She said the defence only had an issue with the

content.

“[However] the only time any information can be edited out of a statement is when it involves previous cases. We cannot take out evidence from a testimony that is the statement of the accused. Their version cannot change,” said Marshall.

Judge Lister Nuku agreed and said the statements would be allowed as is.

The trial continues on Monday.

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