Vuyelwa Bhalawese and her 21-year-old boyfriend Siyanda Majola have been sentenced to life behind high prison walls for the murder of the woman’s 59-year-old husband.
The lovebirds appeared in the Maluti regional court on Thursday where they were condemned to life behind bars.
The court heard that in June 2022, the husband was attacked with a blunt object at his home and died on the scene.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) revealed that the duo killed the husband in order for the woman to access the deceased’s pensions and enjoy them with her boyfriend.
Bhalawese, 46, had an affair with Majola and the couple stayed in Matatiele while the husband worked in Gauteng where he was due to retire when he turned 60.
NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said the husband would send money back home for the upkeep of his family in the Lukholweni location in Eastern Cape.
“The husband sent R12 000 for the wife to buy sheep a few months before he was killed,” said Tyali.
“When he returned home, he found that the sheep had not been bought and started questioning his wife. It is then that Bhalawese and her boyfriend conspired to kill him.”
During their plot to commit the gruesome crime, they were overheard by Bhalawese’s 17-year-old nephew saying the man’s death would mean the wife, who does not have a child with the deceased, would inherit his pensions.
The deceased had been working for more than 30 years.
After a thorough police investigation, the lovers were arrested before the deceased was laid to rest. During trial, the nephew turned state witness and identified the lovers as killers.
The lovers pleaded not guilty and raised alibis that state advocate Chumile Mkentane managed to successfully invalidate.
The court agreed with the prosecutor’s submission that there were no compelling circumstances for deviating from the prescribed minimum sentence of life for premeditated murder.
The court also heard that the crime was motivated by greed.
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