TWO men accused of the vicious murder of a Somali mother and her three children in Queenstown last year, yesterday pleaded not guilty in the Grahamstown High Court.

Several members of the Somali community sat quietly in court yesterday as Mandla Thomas, 23, and Melikhaya Ncapayi, 27, denied any involvement in the shock slaying and robbery of Sahra Omar Farah, 46, her little daughter Isse Chaasho Osman, 12, and her two sons Muhamed Issa Osman, 19 and Ibrahim Isse Osman, 14.

In what looks set to be a marathon two-week trial, Thomas and Ncapayi have also been charged with robbery with aggravating circumstances.

In the indictment, the State has indicated that it would call for life imprisonment should the two men be found guilty.

The slain family owned and lived in a small spaza shop in Thambo Village, situated between Queenstown and Whittlesea. On the night of September 25 last year, Thomas and Ncapayi allegedly broke into the shop and, along with “others”, “attacked and stabbed” the family until they were all dead.

“All four deceased sustained multiple stab wounds and other injuries and died on the scene,” says the charge sheet. Horrific crime-scene photographs form part of the body of evidence.

The men allegedly then ransacked the shop and left with their booty.

Yesterday a friend of Thomas and Ncapayi, Bongani Matyobeni, 20, said the two men had approached him on September 25 and asked him to assist them to “rob the Indians”. They later showed him a gun and a “sword” they intended using.

However, he managed to avoid accompanying the men that night by asking his grandmother to refuse to allow him to go with them, which she did.

Startlingly, Matyobeni later admitted under cross-examination by Thomas’s defence advocate, Alan de Jager, that he had robbed the Somali family’s spaza shop just the week before their murders.

Matyobeni is currently serving a six-month sentence for another housebreaking but said he had never been arrested for the previous robbery of the spaza shop. “That might change soon,” predicted De Jager ominously.

De Jager put it to him that, having robbed the store before, he had known the layout and had returned a week later to “get some more”. He denied this.

Thomas, dressed in a green and yellow Celtic supporters sweatshirt and blue jeans, and Ncapayi, dressed in red sweatpants and a black leather jacket, watched impassively while Matyobeni gave his evidence.

The trial continues today. State advocate Glen Turner is prosecuting. Advocate Chris Schuring is defending Ncapayi while De Jager is defending Thomas. Judge Clive Plasket is presiding. — DDC

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