Indian origin youth charged with arranging parents' murder in SAfrica

The close-knit Muslim community of Standerton shocked after 18-year-old Zahid Makda appeared in court for arranging the murder of his 43-year-old father Hanif Makda and 37-year- old mother Fatima with the help of his two classmates.

Makda, who had become a Hafiz (one who has memorised the entire Quran by heart) and a role model to his classmates, allegedly paid two of them, aged 20 and 22, 1,000 Rands to kill his parents.

The bodies of his parents were found in their bedroom in pools of blood after they were bludgeoned to death.The duo fled in the family car. While they were on the run, one of them died after the vehicle met an accident and the other later in hospital but not before disclosing that Makda had paid them and promised them another 250,000 Rands after insurance policies on his parents' life were paid out.

Police had found bloodstained knives in the vehicle.The Makda family had originally come from India.Hanif ran a general store while the mother supported the family with her home industries.

Two other children, aged nine and 12, were being taken care of by a shocked neighbour, Fawzia Sarang, who was struggling to come to terms with the incident.She described the family as a loving one with no signs of any tensions between them and the accused son.
The incident was considered even more serious by local Muslims because it occurred during the holy month of Ramadan.

It brought back memories of the murder of plastic surgeon Anwar Kadwa and his wife Munira, who were found shot dead in their luxurious home in Johannesburg on the first day of Ramadan in 2005.

The surgeons, Riaz, changed his version of the incident several times alleging that burglars had killed them.He is now serving a jail term after he was found guilty when his sister Nabila testified against him.