On Tuesday the Grahamstown High Court sentenced two men, Thomas Mandla and Melikhaya Ncapayi, to four life sentences each on charges of murder as well as 17 and 15 years respectively for robbery with aggravating circumstances.
On Tuesday the Grahamstown High Court sentenced two men, Thomas Mandla and Melikhaya Ncapayi, to four life sentences each on charges of murder as well as 17 and 15 years respectively for robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The case first appeared before a judge on 2 November 2009 and after seven months the family of the victims can finally have some closure.
The murders took place on 25 September 2005. Sahra Omar Farah, a 46-year-old Somali woman and her three children: 19-year-old Mohammed Issa Omar, her 12-year-old daughter Issa Chasso Osman and her 14-year-old son Ibrahim Issa Osman, were each stabbed to death in their home between Whittlesea and Queenstown.
Mandla and Ncapayi, aged 23 and 27 at the time, were found to have forcibly entered their home. Located in the house itself was Farah’s business called Moha’s Shop, which the two men burgled before brutally and repeatedly stabbing all four to death.
Some of the family members of the deceased travelled from Cape Town to the hearing and were happy with the verdict but are still coming to terms with the loss.
“The court made sure they will never be free which helps make it better,” said Farah’s sister, Saido Issa Osma via an interpreter.
A family member, Abdalla Hassan Ahmed felt that the men were just criminals and the attack had nothing to do with them being Somalian.
Throughout the case the defendents tried to tell the court that they were beaten and harassed while in police custody.
But after cross examination, some noticeable contradictions emerged from their stories and the police were found to have done no wrong.
Mandla is already a convicted criminal who had served six months for theft and housebreaking with intent to steal in October 2005.
