Durban - The brother of murdered Durban woman Soraya Charmaine Naidoo - allegedly killed in a hit ordered by her husband - wiped away tears as he told the court the robbers had demanded his sister go with them.
Junaid Narasiah had been testifying in the trial of Bongani Manyathi, Mandlenkosi Jobe and Inderesan Maistry in the Durban High Court on Tuesday.
All three pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping and robbery with aggravating circumstances before Acting Judge Burt Laing.
The State alleged Naidoo had been murdered in February last year after she had been taken, at gunpoint, from her Merebank home in what appeared to be a robbery.
Naidoo’s body was found in uMbumbulu. She had been strangled and stabbed.
Narasiah testified that his sister had been taken when two men came into their home at about 9pm on February 17.
Struggling to contain his emotions, Narasiah described how he had told the two robbers he would go with them and drive a Tata Indica that had been parked in the yard.
“They said they wanted someone to drive the car and they wanted to take my sister. I stood up and said it’s my car, I am the driver. But they didn’t want me, they said they wanted her.”
Naidoo’s relatives, who were seated in the public gallery, were also tearful during Narasiah’s testimony.
The State said the murder plot had been planned by Maistry, who hired Jobe to assist him.
Jobe then hired Manyathi and another man, Sifiso Joyisa, to carry out the crimes.
In 2014, Joyisa pleaded guilty to Naidoo’s murder and was sentenced to 40 years in jail.
In his plea, he said Jobe had hired him and Manyathi to kill Naidoo, but said Maistry had been “the boss” who had ordered the murder. Narasiah testified that he had identified Manyathi during an identity parade and pointed him out in court.
He said Manyathi had taken the gun from another man and had held him, Naidoo and his siblings in a room at the back of the house.
He said he had not seen the other man’s face clearly.
During cross-examination, attorney Shahin Azmuth, acting for Manyathi, asked Narasiah how he had identified Manyathi but not the other man.
Narasiah said he had not concentrated on the other man’s face, but he believed he could also identify him if he saw him again.
Azmuth also queried how Narasiah could recall that the other man wore a blue overall and blue cap, but could not remember what the man, he had identified as Manyathi, wore.
She also questioned why Narasiah had initially told the court he had seen Manyathi at a bail application, but then said he had meant Maistry.
Narasiah replied that he had only seen Manyathi at the identity parade and had assumed he was being asked about Maistry when he answered the question.
At the start of the trial, State advocate Nadira Moosa said the State would be relying on witness testimony, which would place Manyathi at the house at the time of the robbery and kidnapping.
She said his DNA had also been positively matched to a sample found on a bottle recovered from the stolen vehicle.
To prove Jobe’s role in the crimes, the State would rely on cellphone records and would call two taxi drivers who would testify he had hired them to transport Joyisa and Manyathi before and after the murder.
She said that the State had circumstantial evidence against Maistry, including cellphone records and a witness who would testify that Maistry had asked for the details of a person who would arrange his wife’s murder.
The trial continues.
The Mercury