The teen girl who was allegedly murdered by her dad will receive a posthumous award for earning two distinctions.
|||Durban - The Chatsworth teenager who was brutally murdered with a Hanuman stick earned two matric distinctions and will be awarded a special award posthumously on Tuesday.
Melarisa Kandasamy, 18, received distinctions for life orientation and business study. She had planned to study BCom Accounting at UKZN this year.
Vinay Motheeram, the principal of Crossmoor Secondary, where Melarisa was a pupil, said he would collect an award from the Department of Education at a function for top matric achievers at the Durban International Convention Centre.
Motheeram described Melarisa as an excellent pupil committed to her studies.
“She always tried to excel. She always tried to be the best at her studies and she was very responsible.
“Judging from her trials, where she received five distinctions, we knew she would do well so we are not shocked at the distinctions she received now,” said Motheeram.
Melarisa, along with her brother, Megandran, 17, and mother, Varsha, 41, were bludgeoned to death in their Moorton home.
Their bodies were found by the police early last week.
Their father and husband, Rajan, 44, appeared in court on Friday charged with their murder. The trio’s funeral service took place later on Friday at the Crossmoor Secondary School.
Varsha’s uncle, Ronny Kallan, said on Monday he felt very proud of his grand-niece but was heartbroken that she would not realise her dreams.
“We always knew that Melarisa would do well in her exams, we just didn’t know how well she would do.
“As a family, we feel extremely proud of her, but it’s not easy celebrating her achievement in her absence, after the brutal manner in which she was taken away from us,” Kallan said.
He said identifying the bodies had been horrifying, and that it appeared as though the children showed resistance to the attack during which they were beaten on the head with a gadha – a traditional Indian mace carried by the Hindu god Hanuman.
“Judging from the extent of the injuries, I could see that the kids put up a fight. This was characteristic of them, especially Melarisa.”
He said he had always had full confidence in Melarisa and wished she was here to see how her hard work had paid off.
Melarisa’s best friend, Courtney Munsamy, a classmate at Crossmoor, remembered her friend as a hard worker.
Daily News