Durban — There was no sign of family members of Phoenix father Kista Chetty who deliberately started a fire that burnt his wife and kids to death in 2021, on Monday at the Durban High Court.
The court had to postpone the matter as the pre-sentencing reports were outstanding.
Judge Carol Sibiya adjourned the court for a few minutes to give the defence time to contact the social workers because there was no indication of when the reports would be available.
Defence attorney Musa Chiliza said he had received no email of the report. After the adjournment, there was still no indication of when the pre-sentencing reports would be available.
Judge Sibiya then postponed the case to October 30.
Chetty gave Chiliza a piece of paper. It was not clear what it was about, however, Chiliza said he was going to go through it and would update the court at the next proceedings.
Chetty was found guilty of the murders of his wife Elisha Naidoo, 39, his 13-year-old daughter Jadene, his 9-year-old son Jordan, 8-year-old daughter Aarav and his 3-year-old nephew, Aldrin. The five died in a fire that was started in the rented room the family lived in in a house in Kidstone Place, Phoenix. Chetty’s brother-in-law Deon Naidoo and others lived in the lounge of the same house. There were 12 of them in total living in the home.
When Judge Sibiya delivered her verdict she said it was difficult to deal with a matter of an accused charged with murder in relation to his family. She ruled that the murders were premeditated.
“The main issue to be determined is whether the accused, in setting the fire, had the intention to kill the occupants of the house and whether he had planned the murder. The onus is on the State to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The important issue is intention at the time of setting the fire,” said Judge Sibiya.
The court was satisfied that Chetty set the fire with the intention to kill the deceased with the people inside the house, the judge said.
She said these murderers were premeditated as he was very angry that evening and he did exactly what he had intended to do.
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