Page 13 - You - South Africa (February 2020)
P. 13
ere had been signs all wasn’t well also put limits on us. She was our
Kavitha’s life. According to Pieterma- queen and she gave us the world.
zburg newspaper The Witness, she’d “She was flawless and beauti-
en subjected to an onslaught of ful; she had style. Looking at her
rassment, including threatening in that coffin was like looking at
one calls and messages, since a Barbie doll. All the young girls
gust last year. in the family, including myself,
She’d opened three harassment strived to be like her.
ses and been granted protection “Without her this house will
rders in two of the cases. But the never be the same. She never
timidation reportedly continued wanted to be alone and she loved
nd intensified in the week leading up family gatherings. She loved en-
o her murder. tertaining. Family was her
The day before her death she everything.”
pened another case of harassment
nd returned to the police station the RYANA becomes FAR LEFT: Kavitha threw a R100 000 birthday bash for her
ext day for an update. emotional when she then four-year-old. ABOVE: Kavitha in 2017 with daughter
Hours later her body was found. talks about her Aryana (middle), son Junior and her youngest child.
mom’s final mo-
AVITHA ran an online weight- ments. closed “until further notice”.
loss business that sold the A “Whoever was in that car They’ve vowed to relaunch it, though.
slimming drink Foreverwell with my mother, whoever saw her for the “This business was like my mother’s
Tea. last time and witnessed her last breaths, fourth child,” Aryana says. “We’re going
According to her children, you’ve taken not just a mother away from to run it in the same way she did but for
“former friends” were jealous her babies – you’ve taken a daughter now we’re hoping the killers will be
of her success and “wanted to destroy from her parents. brought to book.”
her”. “Life was just beginning for my brother Her grandmother Roshila breaks down
“They’d remind her she had no formal and me and we’re very angry. You took as she recalls how her daughter would
education,” says Aryana, who’s studying away our dreams.” phone her all the time to
law. “She did struggle in life. Challenges Junior, who’s in his final ‘We even check up on her.
were thrown at her but she made it. She’d years of an LLB law degree, suggested “The last time I heard from
achieved so much. says his mother brought an her was at 3pm the day she
“She opened her slimming tea busi- aura into the room with her. she get a died. My baby’s been taken
ness and was doing so well. What really “Everyone wanted to know bodyguard. away from me. I’ll never hear
hurtsisshewasletdownbypeoplewho her. She was so patient and her voice on the phone
were once so close to her – they took always wore a smile on her She said no’ again.”
advantage of her kindness.” face. When I graduated with Police spokesperson Brig-
Aryana says the harassment had got to my B Com degree in law, she was so adierBoxerPillay has confirmed Kavitha
the point where the family was afraid to proud of me.” opened a case at the Mountain Rise po-
log on to social media because of what Kavitha’s six-year-old daughter is still lice station the day before she died and
they might see. “Fake profiles were cre- too young to understand what’s hap- that she returned the following day.
ated to try to defame her. We’d yell and pened but she knows her mom has gone. According to The Witness, “Sources
cry but she’d calm us down. She’d even “I loved my mom because she took care close to the investigation said they [po-
apologise to us for the things that were of me,” she says. “She spent a lot of time lice] were going through all the evidence
happening in her life.” with me and she used to buy me toys.” and history of the case as it involved
On the day she died her children of- A week after her death, Junior and Ar- ‘complex and complicated issues’.”
fered to take her to work but she refused, yana undertook to reopen their business No arrests had been made at the time
Aryana says. “We even suggested sheget but later informed clients it would stay of going to print. S
a bodyguard but she said no; no on
could do anything for her. She didn’t
want us to stress about it. t was a proud
“On the Monday she left a bit earl oment when
and my brother and I didn’t see her unior graduated
ith a B Com law
but we heard her. She knocked on our egree. From left
doors before she left – that was her re Manesh Mo-
usual way of saying goodbye.” anlal, Aryana
Little did they know it would be her erputh, Junior,
final goodbye. avitha with her
“She was the best mom on Earth,” oungest child
SUPPLIED Aryana says. “People said she spoilt nd her parents
oshila and
us and they didn’t like that but she
itchell Nerputh.
