Cape Town - The Mitchells Plain family whose two daughters were killed in a vehicle crash have criticised the justice system for looking out for criminals, not victims.
This is as Likhona Mgidi, 22, arrested for allegedly killing their daughters, Nishaat and Nurah Thomas, aged 6 and 2, in the crash on the corner of Merrydale Avenue and Wespoort Drive in Portland, was recently granted R3 000 bail in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court.
Mgidi was driving without a valid licence.
Nishaat died on impact while Nurah died in hospital the next day after the car they were travelling in with their father was hit by the speeding taxi on March 3 when it jumped a red light.
Abdurahmaan Thomas said he and his wife were now trying to adapt to their new life without their daughters.
“It’s sad that he got bail. I understand that he is also a human being, but he walks around and can see his family, and live his life, while we will never see our daughters again. We wake up to an empty and quiet house and bed. It will never be the same again.
“It is extremely heartbreaking that I have to visit my children at a graveyard. They were our only kids. I now don’t have children to take to school. My daughter had just started school and she didn’t even experience her first school holiday,” he said.
Thomas described his daughters as respectful, joyful, and always smiling. He said it was especially hard for his wife, Raihaana, who had not returned to work.
“We want justice for our daughters, if not for them, for the youth of today. People can’t be driving around like that; there are children, and they are supposed to be the future,” he said.
The case was postponed to June 21.
Meanwhile, the DA in the province said the incident highlighted the urgent need for stricter regulations and enforcement of the taxi industry in the Western Cape.
DA provincial spokesperson on Mobility, Derrick America, said he would write to the Mobility MEC, Ricardo MacKenzie, asking him for swift action to engage with the taxi industry in the province to find workable, long-term solutions to prevent the occurrence of such tragedies.