The wife of a prominent Laudium businessman who survived the attack on their home which claimed the life of her husband, Omar “Omie” Carrim, identified two accused before the Pretoria High Court as part of the gang who terrorised them that day.
Nurjehan Carrim on Wednesday took the stand in the trial of Clement Mametja, 38, and Mpho Lucas Makgai, 28. Both accused earlier denied breaking into the couple’s home on October 13, 2008, attempting to murder the woman and murdering her husband.
The attack on the 68-year-old Omar Carrim and his 56-year-old wife was described by witnesses as being extremely brutal. The elderly man, after he was hit on the head and in the face with the butt of a firearm, bled profusely. He was nevertheless dragged from room to room as the robbers went in search of money and other valuables.
Within minutes of trying to reassure his family that he was doing fine, he died. Nurjehan Carrim spent two weeks in the intensive care unit of the Unitas Hospital with brain injuries after she too was hit in the face and on the head with the butt of a firearm.
She is still so terrified of her alleged attackers that she asked not to testify in open court. It was, however, decided that it was in the interest of justice that she testified in the open. She was assisted by several family members who sat close to her while she was in the witness box.
Carrim stood strong and did not once break down, as she bravely told the court about her horrific ordeal.
She said her husband was in the lounge that night at about nine and she was praying in her bedroom. When she looked up she saw a man standing in front of her, asking for money.
“He was aggressive and told me to look down,” she said. The woman pointed at “the man in the pink shirt” sitting in the dock, being Makgai, and said he was the man in her room. She said he then hit her on the head with the butt of a gun.
She said Mametja then brought her husband into the bedroom and it was evident that he had also been assaulted, he had blood all over his body. “My husband told the men not to hurt him and said he will hand them the keys to the cupboard.”
Carrim said her attacker forced her to her knees and tied her hands behind her back. By then she could barely see as her eye was swollen from the blows she had received and she could hardly hear anything.
She passed out.
The woman testified that she came round when family members shook her. She could hardly walk at that point and they took her to the lounge, where her husband was. “My husband told me he was fine.”
Shortly afterwards he closed his eyes, never to open them again.
Carrim said she had no idea how the robbers gained entry to the house, as there was no forced entry, but she was convinced that Winners Lekgelo, the security guard who kept watch over their street, was involved. He was initially charged with the others, but charges have been provisionally withdrawn against him. - Pretoria News