CANDICE BAILEY and CANDICE SOOBRAMONEY
TWO HOURS before Rosebank captain Neelavathi Naidu was gunned down at the police station, she sent an SMS saying her children were her reason for living.
During an SMS chat with a friend on her situation, Naidu said no matter what happened in her life, she would live for them.
Naidu’s husband Dean committed suicide three months ago, and she and her two children Creschen, 11, and Divina, 9, were still getting over his sudden death.
By 4pm yesterday, she was dead.
The 46-year-old captain was shot twice in the chest and twice in the left arm. Her station commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Thandi Mkhize, 43, was hit 14 times. She is still in a critical condition at Netcare Milpark Hospital.
They were the subject of a revenge killing by a civilian clerk, David Kekana, 38, who had lost an appeal against his dismissal for mishandling firearms.
Naidu, a witness in Kekana’s dealings, had given evidence at his disciplinary hearing. Mkhize had decided to dismiss Kekana.
Kekana would have been handed the decision on Monday.
Instead, he stormed into the Sturdee Road station with what police believe was a service pistol, and shot the two.
Yesterday, Naidu’s friend Nalline Naidoo told The Star how she and the woman they affectionately called “Cookie” had been speaking earlier in the day.
“She sent me an SMS saying: ‘I’ve realised no matter what happens, my kids are my number one priority. They are my reason for living’.”
The last three months had been difficult for Naidu, said Naidoo, adding that her friend had still tried to remain positive.
“Even though she had her own problems, she still found time for others.
“Even yesterday, she went to visit our friend in hospital and had planned to give her some encouragement,” said Naidoo.
The friend told of the difficulties Naidu’s children were experiencing since their father’s death.
Naidoo said the children were not taking the news of their mother’s death well.
She explained how, a few weeks ago, Divina panicked after her mother fetched her late from school. “She was scared that her mother would never come back.”
The two children have been flown to their mother’s family home in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal, where they will be cared for by Naidu’s older sister, Vijie Moodley.
Meanwhile, Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko visited Mkhize in hospital yesterday.
Mazibuko could only speak to the doctors and Mkhize’s husband, sister and mother, who have been at the hospital since the incident.
“She had open wounds, so they are avoiding getting people in. We had to look at her from a distance. She is in a stable condition,” said Mazibuko, who added that Mkhize would still undergo another operation to remove some more bullets lodged in her.
“She can’t even open her eyes. She looks terrible lying there with all the pipes. We are feeling very sad,” said Mazibuko.
She said the attack raised serious questions around the security at police stations. More concerning, though, were the prevalent attack on police officers.
Naidu’s death brings the number of police officers killed in South Africa since January to 57.
“It’s tantamount to attacking the state. We must stop this scourge,” said Mazibuko, adding it was tragic that the women had been attacked on the first day of Women’s Month.
She added that Gauteng’s head of the Hawks, General Shadrack Sibiya, was heading a task team to investigate cases of murder and attempted murder, as well as possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.