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Doc killed in night of terror
06/10/2005 22:51 - (SA)
Lucia Swart, Beeld
Johannesburg - Dr Mahomed Anwar Kadwa, 50, did his last operation to restore a child's dignity on Wednesday, just hours before he and his wife were shot dead in their bed.
Kadwa, a plastic surgeon at Park Lane Clinic in Parktown, Johannesburg, and his wife, Minirah, 49, were overpowered and shot several times in bed at their home in Crown North, Mayfair, shortly before midnight on Wednesday.
Saleem Thokan, chairperson of the Johannesburg Central Policing Forum, said: "I received a call from Dr Kadwa's neighbour shortly after 23:00pm.
"He said he'd heard shots in the house and somebody screaming."
Thokan called police and rushed to the house.
"I was there within three minutes. A few policemen were already there.
"The house was dark, we suspect the assailants had tripped the power," he said.
"When no one answered, the police kicked open the door. Somebody helped them to restore the power."
Phoned from a cupboard
They found Kadwa's son, Riaz, 21, in the house. He had called for help from a window.
His wife, Nabila, and 17-year-old sister, also Nabila, hid in a cupboard.
His sister apparently tried several times to phone for help from inside the cupboard.
Thokan said: "The police searched the house and told us that of the five people who lived there, only three were still alive."
Kadwa, who was involved with the hare lips and cleft palates programme which did free operations, had talked to the parents of one-year-old Juan van Niekerk on the phone about 20:00 on Wednesday evening, after he had repaired their child's hare lip.
The next call the Van Niekerks received from the Park Lane Clinic was to tell them their benefactor had been murdered in his house.
Miriam Gani, who received reconstructive surgery from him after having breast cancer, said: "To me, he was more than a doctor, he was a friend.
"He was a wonderful person and an excellent doctor who always walked the extra mile for his patients."
Gani and her daughter, Fatima, were among those who gathered at the Kadwa home for the funeral at 14:00 on Thursday.
"It was a big shock. I didn't want to believe he was dead.
"Sometimes, I just went to him to get advice and to pray with him.
"He always had time for a cup of coffee, even when he was still in his theatre gown," said Gani.
Nabila, a Grade 12 pupil at Roedean School for Girls, and Riaz, a student at Wits University, and his wife stood among the mourners, but declined to speak to the media.
Motive for killing not known
Kadwa headed the Wits plastic surgery unit before joining Park Lane Clinic in 1990.
He and his colleagues recently said they repaired hare lips and cleft palates because everyone "deserves to hold their heads high in the community".
Sergeant Sanku Tsunke said the motive for the murder was
still unknown.
"According to preliminary investigations, nothing was stolen. The details are still unclear.
"We don't even know whether the suspects fled in a car or on foot."
- Beeld
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