Long jail terms have been handed to three Eastern Cape men for their roles in a farm attack and car crash during their foiled getaway which left a woman with fatal spinal injuries, reports HeraldLIVE.

Odwa Dyabana, Luthando Ngangelizwe and Siseko Qhayiso were convicted in the Eastern Cape High Court (East London) of kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, attempted murder and firearm-related offences.

Ngangelizwe and Qhayiso each received effective sentences of 25 years’ imprisonment. Dyabana received an additional sentence for culpable homicide and reckless driving, bringing his effective sentence to 30 years. All three were declared unfit to possess firearms.

A fourth accused, Lundi Magobongo, was acquitted after the court accepted his version that he was a contracted e-hailing driver who merely transported the men, unaware of their criminal intentions.

The court heard the assailants arrived at Lorain Farm in Bluewater, near East London, on 20 February 2024 under the pretext of wanting to buy dogs, said NPA regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said.

After gaining the farm owner’s trust, they lured him to the kennels in his Toyota Land Cruiser.

There they produced firearms, tied him up and returned to the farmhouse.

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‘The farm owner and four employees were assaulted, kidnapped and held hostage. The attackers tortured the farm owner by binding him, placing him in a bathtub, running hot water and threatening to dismember him with a chainsaw to force him to reveal the location of the safe keys,' said Tyali.

Unable to open the safes, the attackers used tools to dislodge them from the walls, loaded them into the stolen Land Cruiser, and fled the scene in a convoy that included the victim’s Toyota Hilux.

While fleeing, the robbers were involved in a multi vehicle collision on the N2 near Beacon Bay, according to HeraldLIVE.

A woman sustained spinal injuries and later died in hospital and 15 others suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious. 

During sentencing proceeding Senior State Advocate Andile Nohiya said the offences were premeditated and brutal and had caused severe psychological and financial harm to the victims and the broader farming community.

Full HeraldLIVE report