It has been two years since former Top Billing presenter Simba Mhere and his friend Kady-Shay O’Bryan died in a tragic accident at the William Nicol Drive and N1 off-ramp intersection.
Mhere’s vehicle and another driven by Velry Laka, were hit by a white VW Polo belonging to Preshalin Naidoo in the early hours of the morning.
Mhere was laid to rest at West Park Cemetery on 5 February 2015.
A moving funeral service was covered by various media houses at Rhema Bible Church.
Since then Naidoo has been charged with two counts of culpable homicide and the trial will continue on 7 February – two years and two days after Mhere was buried.
Mhere’s father, Joseph, was also in the vehicle and managed to survive the impact. The court was silent when he testified on 8 December 2015 and said, “I felt pain in my back, I looked at my son and he was motionless. I looked at his friend [O’Bryan] and she was motionless.”
The Mhere and O’Bryan families have been seen regularly in court. They appear both sad and frustrated as the case has been a roller coaster of delays and postponements.
A number of witnesses have been called and cross-examined by State prosecutors MJ Jager and Dinesh Nandkissor.
Naidoo’s lawyer, Advocate Francois Roets, has fought a hard battle for his client, most notably when he argued that GPS tracking data from Naidoo’s vehicle should be ruled inadmissible.
Car Tracking Fleet manager, Lorenz Stoger, testified that according to their data, Naidoo’s vehicle hit Mhere’s travelling at 166km per hour.
