Durban - Wife-killer Inderesan “Alvin” Maistry, squirming at the thought of a lifetime behind bars, is still professing his innocence, telling POST in an exclusive interview: “I am not a monster.”
As he was being led away from the Durban High Court to start his life sentence for masterminding the brutal murder of Soraya “Charmaine” Naidoo, he added: “Neither am I a cold blooded wife-killer.”
He claimed police had used him as a “scapegoat” to secure three other convictions.
Maistry, 47, who grew up in Mobeni Heights and settled in Merebank with his second wife - his first wife died in an accident after her car brakes apparently failed - also said he was worried about the welfare of his family, including his three sons aged 13, 14 and 20 from his first marriage, who were now living with his mother.
But the former Department of Labour manager seemed most concerned about his incarceration.
“Prison life is difficult,” he told POST.
“While awaiting trial I was with 49 other prisoners in the cell.”
Westville Prison’s Medium B section, where he would spend the rest of his life, was overcrowded, he added.
“And I have no choice but to eat the drab food which is provided to prisoners.”
Maistry, whose nickname is Cooksie’, had hired hitmen Mandelenkosi Zamokhawakeh Jobe, 41, and Bongani Lucky John Manyathi, 28, to carry out the killing of his wife on February 17, 2014.
On Friday, Acting Judge Burt Laing imposed the maximum sentence - life - on the trio for murder.
He also gave them 15 years each for robbery with aggravating circumstances and five years for kidnapping. These sentences would run concurrently with the life sentence.
The judge said the robbery, which took place at Maistry and Naidoo’s matrimonial home in Merebank, was a ruse.
According to the court, while there was a suggestion during the trial that the motive for the murder might have been insurance policy payouts, this was not proved conclusively.
Judge Laing said the couple, who ran a supermarket in Merebank, had had a troubled marriage.
But instead of orchestrating the hit on his wife, Maistry should have walked out of his marriage and filed for a divorce, the judge said.
Naidoo, 32, was stabbed six times after she was kidnapped from her home.
She was taken in her car to an isolated area in Umbumbulu on the South Coast where her body was dumped.
The life sentences handed out on Friday mean that four men are now behind bars for Naidoo’s murder.
The first was Sifiso Joyisa, who had implicated Maistry as the mastermind behind the hit.
He was jailed for life by the Durban Magistrate’s Court
Joyisa, Manyathi, Jobe and Maistry, the last to be nabbed, were arrested by Warrant Officer Rajen Budgie’ Nagesar and other members of the SAPS Provincial Task Team.
A defiant Maistry, who intends appealing the judgment and sentence, rejected the court’s finding.
He told POST he had nothing to apologise for as it was “a crime I had nothing to do with”.
Brushing aside Judge Laing’s finding that he had paid Jobe and Manyathi an undisclosed sum of cash to have the hit carried out, Maistry alleged that the court had ignored evidence that he had been in the company of his brother-in-law, Shane Narasiah, on the night of the murder.
While Maistry has set his sights on the Supreme Court of Appeal, hoping for a different outcome, Naidoo’s family applauded Judge Laing’s decision.
They said the killer should rot in jail.
Naidoo’s cousin, Desaray Naidoo, rubbished Maistry’s claim that he was not a monster.
“If he truly loved Charmaine then why did he ignore the crisis SMS and call he got from Charmaine’s only daughter and his stepdaughter, Rohena, a Grade 11 pupil, that robbers had taken her mom away?” she said.
“I don’t buy Alvin’s story that he is innocent. The prison authorities should lock him up and throw the keys away.
“Alvin orchestrated the murder of a defenceless Charmaine.”
Naidoo said she and her family wanted to thank state advocate Nadira Moosa, investigating officer Nagesar, the KwaZulu-Natal Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and prosecutor Yuban Archary from the Durban Magistrate’s Court “for ensuring that Alvin got what he deserved”.
In a media statement, Moipone Noko, the head of the KZN DPP, welcomed the stiff sentences imposed on Maistry, Jobe and Manyathi.
The sentences should serve as a warning to like-minded individuals that the directorate had adopted a zero tolerance to such unlawfulness, said Noko.
POST