‘Racist shot my husband’

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Durban - Find someone of your own kind. These were the words a white security guard allegedly uttered to Esmeralda Naidoo, 25, moments before he shot dead her husband, Donrald Naidoo, 27. The couple worked for the same car dealership but at different branches. They met and fell in love. They married in July last year. Three days later they had a daughter, Estaria Tanusha, now almost eight months old. On Friday night the couple, who lived on the Bluff, went out for drinks with Donrald’s brother Sam to a local pub on Marine Drive. They met two other friends and enjoyed their night out.

At some point Esmeralda needed to go to the toilet. A female friend and Donrald, who worked as an estate agent, went with her.

She said: “My friend noticed that the white security guard had been staring at Donrald and I. However, I did not bother with him.”

When they returned to their friends, gathered in the parking lot, Donrald and Esmeralda began to argue.

She said: “I then noticed the security guard mocking the way we were fighting.

“I got upset and asked him what was wrong with him. He shouted back... ‘find someone of your own kind’. This made me angry. I pushed him. He pushed me back and I fell to the ground.”

Esmeralda claimed that as she got back on to her feet, he pulled out a cannister of pepper spray and sprayed it into her eyes.

“I fell to the ground again and this time he kicked me just above my ankle. Everything happened so fast.

“Donrald, who had remained calm throughout, tried to talk to the guard.

“Donrald was not aggressive. However, the guard pulled out his firearm and shot Donrald on the left-hand side of his body. He fell to the ground.

“My eyes were burning from the pepper spray and I could not see much. People from the area came to our aid.

“A resident called police and another helped me wash the pepper spray off my face.”

Sam said he ran to his brother’s aid. “I kept on talking to him hoping it would keep him alive. I called for an ambulance and alerted our family as to what had happened.

The police arrived and arrested the guard. However, they would not transport my brother to hospital. They insisted we wait for an ambulance.”

Before the ambulance could come, Donrald’s sister arrived and the family took him to hospital. However, he died.

Esmeralda said she believed the shooter was motivated by racism.

“Donrald never provoked him. It is pure racism. He did not like the fact that we were together.

“Yet, Donrald and I loved each other. We never saw colour. We only saw love. It angers me that people like the shooter still exist. Every night I pray for justice.”

Captain Nqobile Gwala, a police spokesperson, said a case of murder was being investigated.

The security guard, 29, was arrested but later released. At this stage he has not appeared in court.

Donrald’s death is the third tragedy to hit the family.

In 2002, his sister, Sarveni, was killed in a car accident on the Victoria Embankment. She was 21 and a marketing and business law student at the then Natal Technikon.

In 2003, while living in Merebank, the family was subjected to a house robbery during which the father, Ronald, was assaulted with the butt of a gun. He died a month later.

“With all the tragedy in Donrald’s life, the birth of his daughter was the silver lining for him. It was the happiest day of his life. He was so protective of her,” said Esmeralda.

She said the shooter had robbed her of a husband and her daughter of a father.

“He will never see her celebrate her first birthday, take her first steps or go to school. Every morning she calls out ‘dada’ thinking he will walk into the room.”

Donrald served on the youth council of the Saiva Sithantha Sungum in Merebank and belonged to the local community policing forum.

His funeral will be held on Wednesday at the Clare Estate Crematorium.

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