The mother of slain sisters Nurah and Nishaat Thomas says she was shocked to learn that no arrest has been made in the culpable homicide case of her daughters.
The little girls, aged two and six, sadly passed away after a fully-loaded taxi slammed into their family’s car in Mitchells Plain on Friday afternoon.
It is alleged that a taxi driver jumped a red robot and drove into the vehicle at the intersection on Merrydale Avenue and Wespoort Drive shortly after 4pm.
According to dad Abduragmaan, the driver wanted to flee the scene but was arrested by traffic cops.
However, on Monday evening police confirmed no arrests have yet been made in the culpable homicide case.
Mom Raihaana, 38, said this news came as a shock as they believed the man responsible for their only children’s deaths had been busted.
“I didn’t know what to think, because this [police report] made it sound like it was just another accident, which it was not. It’s the accident that took my daughters away from me.”
The story also caught the eye of private forensic investigator Desmond Finnis, who has now offered his service to the family free of charge.
This, after Finnis and his family went through a similar trauma in October 2021, when three relatives died after a bakkie crashed into their stationary car on Baden Powell Drive.
His son-in-law Kurt-Lee Carolus, his ex-wife Yolande Gedult and his granddaughter Taralee all died in the accident,
Finnis, who works for Uniq Investigations, ran a parallel investigation into the crash after he reported the investigating officer to Ipid for gross negligence.
He said the officer, who was first on the scene, had failed to take statements, draw blood samples, take photos of the crime scene or even book the cars in.
Earlier this year, the bakkie driver Achmat Suleiman was found guilty of negligent and reckless driving and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence.
Finnis said he immediately sprang into action after learning about the Thomas sisters’ tragic deaths.
“I have spoken to the senior prosecutor at the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court to have the suspect arrested as soon as possible,” he told the Daily Voice.
Raihaana said Finnis contacted her and assured her that he would be following up on the investigation.
“He’s not charging us anything. I am just so thankful for the help and also for the support we have been receiving from family, friends and people we do not even know.
“Above all, thank you for the prayers; all I want now is justice for my daughters.”
The mother adds that a detective came to their house on Tuesday afternoon to take her husband’s statement and to explain to them why no arrests were made at the scene.
“He said from here he’s going to the taxi driver and he explained it’s because my girls were not declared dead on the scene, that’s why they couldn’t call the driver back. He said they basically first needed to do an investigation.”
According to Abduragmaan, someone had rushed with Nurah to hospital while he took Nishaat afterwards once he had regained consciousness. Doctors later said Nishaat had died on impact while klein Nurah passed away on Sunday.
tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za