On the seventh death anniversary of her only child, Pradantha Devnarain believes she has finally turned the corner on a dark part of her life.
|||Pietermaritzburg - Six-year-old Raelin Devnarain was enjoying a pizza when his killers struck.
He was also working on his Grade 1 school project, when he was repeatedly hit with a hammer on his head by his attackers, who left his mom Pradantha Devnarain for dead.
Now, on the seventh death anniversary of her beloved only child, Devnarain believes she has finally turned the corner on a dark part of her life.
“I believe my life was spared for a reason. I am a walking testimony and I plan on not failing my son,” she told POST.
It was a hellish journey for the single 34-year-old mom. On the day she and Raelin were brutally attacked in their Pietermaritzburg home - March 12, 2009 - she did not even know her son had died. Nor did she attend his funeral, such was the extent of her own injuries - 14 stab wounds, five fractures to her skull, a punctured lung, a burst eardrum and losing seven pints of blood.
Five weeks later, still in the ICU, she woke to the news that not only was Raelin no more, but that he had died horrifically.
Devnarain’s only recollection of the attack was sharing a pizza with Raelin and working on his first school project. All she remembered was allowing the gardener into the yard of her Primrose Road, Northdale home.
He and another man had arrived on the pretext of collecting a stove.
“I woke up five weeks later to the news that my son was dead.
“Seven years later my memory (of the incident) has not returned,” she said. “But I’m happy I only have good memories with my son.”
Three weeks after the murder, swift police work led to the arrest and conviction of Zamo Eric Hadebe, 27, and Lucky Zuma, 29. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, 20 years for attempted murder and 15 years for robbery.
Hadebe was Devnarain’s former gardener.
Shocking post-mortem results revealed Raelin suffered three hammer gashes to his head - on the left side of his skull, at the back of his head and one towards his right ear.
The cause of death was severe fracture and brain haemorrhage and the report revealed Raelin had undigested food in his stomach.
A year later, in 2010, Devnarain unveiled her son’s tombstone at the Mountain Rise Cemetery.
It says: “Rest in peace my angel. Forever in my heart, mind and soul. Love you always. Mummy.”
Devnarain, who worked as an executive personal assistant at PwC, had relocated and found a job as an executive.
“I was offered a job on Raelin’s fifth death anniversary and I thought it was sign of a new beginning,” she said.
“In the last seven years I had to go through various phases of depression, taking excessive medication and seeking comfort in any which way. But I have learnt to make peace with myself.
“My spiritual side allows me to believe that my son is in a better place and has been spared the suffering of this earth.”
She now plans to open a support group for parents who lose children.
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