I Loved That Boy

Heartbroken Sedick is mourning the death of his eldest son – but he’s also been charged with his murder

- Kim Abrahams

A FEW weeks ago he did what no parent should ever have to do: he stood over his son’s coffin and gave his boy one final kiss before saying goodbye to him forever.

The death of a child is unbearable for any parent and Sedick Abrahams (62) is battling to come to terms with his loss and heartache.

But there’s one thing making Sedick’s nightmare even worse: he’s the one ac cused of murdering his son, Clinton (28), and his grief is compounded by the fear that he could well go to jail.

“It was an accident,” he says. “I wasn’t myself in that moment – I didn’t expect this. I was scared.”

Clinton was a tik addict who turned his family’s life into a living hell, stealing everything he could get his hands on in his desperation to feed his drug habit.

Sedick, his daughter, Jessica (32), and the family’s representative, Joanie Fredericks, have just returned from consulting lawyers when we meet them in the family’s home in Tafelsig in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town.

Sedick has already appeared in court in connection with his son’s death and is due back in the dock on 11 April. He says the thought of going on trial is terrifying.

“It’s the first time something like this is happening to me,” he says. “I’m not used to such stuff.”

LIFE as the Abrahams’ family knew it changed on 31 January.

“I was alone here at home with Clinton,” recalls Sedick, who worked in a clothing factory and later as a security guard. “He was sleeping and I went to hang up my jeans on the line.

“When I came back inside Clinton was awake. He demanded food and started swearing at me.”

Father and son were in the middle of a heated argument when younger brother Quinton (22) arrived home.