A Friend

Four city families mourn loss of kids

Fifth victim of smash on Kilnerton Road fighting for life in hospital

Four families are trying to pick up the pieces after the smash that abruptly ended the lives of four promising youngsters.

Zaid Ricketts (22), his girlfriend Veronique Pazdera (16), his cousin Michael Adams (22) and friend Martin Els (19) died in a smash on Kilnerton Road on Thursday afternoon. Another friend, Jolandi Maree (17), survived. She is in Muelmed Medi-Clinic in a critical but stable condition.

Zaid was laid to rest yesterday in Laudium. Family and friends gathered to pay their last respects to a young man people over a broad spectrum of political and social levels respected and admired.

Zaid's girlfriend's mother Marguerite Pazdera and sister Angelique Pazdera were also there.

Zaid's mother Fareida Ricketts spoke fondly of her son but was still coming to terms with the tragedy. "So far I've managed but I don't think the impact of the loss has sunk in yet.

"Zaid was a youth facilitator at Robben Island and presented South African history at a spring school. He was an energetic yet sensitive person and very politically aware.

"Zaid spent his third birthday in Pollsmoor Prison with me while I was a political prisoner.

"We wanted to bury him at a reserved site at Hero's Acre for ex-combatants in Cape Town, but we couldn't find the time to organise that," she said.

Former political prisoner Ahmed Kathrada was detained at Pollsmoor Prison in the cell adjacent to that of Ricketts.

He said he was devastated by the news and thought of his favourite picture on his mantlepiece, that of a five-year-old Zaid meeting him when he was released from prison in 1989.

Martins's sister, Lauren Els, was the last person to see the group alive. She was on her way home to the flat she shared with her brother in Hatfield when she saw them in the Corolla.

At one stage Lauren drove next to the four along Church Street. She knew the others because they had visited her flat a few times.

"It was by pure chance that I saw them. I waved at my brother and the driver smiled at me. They were fooling around and I think they wanted to show off and drove off. I lost them in the traffic a few blocks before Kilnerton Road.

"A minute later when I turned the corner and saw the car wrapped around the tree and the police on the scene. They told me the car's tyre had burst as the driver slammed on the brakes when they turned a sharp corner.

"We went back to the scene today (yesterday) and the wheel cover was completely off. There was debris everywhere," said Lauren.

It was a grim picture when she got to the accident, she said.

"I saw the driver hanging out of the window with lots of blood. I thought he was still alive.

"I couldn't understand how the car had turned around - it must have rolled or been airborne.

"I thought they might have just been unconscious and started calling their names because it helps to bring them