Durban - The Pietermaritzburg High Court sentenced a KwaZulu-Natal man to 30 years behind bars on Monday, for killing 86-year-old Ntombana Makhathini.
Sabelo Mthabela, 28, told the court that Makhathini’s daughter-in-law promised him R50,000 in November last year, if he carried out the murder.
In a Section 105A plea and sentence agreement before Acting Judge AJ Mathenjwa, Mthabela pleaded guilty to the charges of murder and housebreaking.
In his plea handed to the court by Legal Aid attorney Amanda Hulley, Mthabela said he had lived near the victim in Esigodini in the Hammarsdale area.
He said he knew Makhathini and her daughter-in-law by seeing them around, as he had been living in the area for about two years.
Mthabela said that on November 4, 2022, he was on his way home from his friend’s house when Makhathini’s daughter-in-law called him.
“It was around 11.30am when the deceased’s daughter-in-law called me to their yard.”
She allegedly told Mthabela that she had a job for him. She said Makhathini kept all her money in the house and she needed her to be killed.
Mthabela said she promised to pay him R50,000 if he killed her mother-in-law. He agreed.
He said the murder was to take place that night.
The plan was for the daughter-in-law to leave the back door open when she left for her night-shift job.
Mthabela said he went to execute the plan at 1am. He opened the back door and went to the elderly woman’s bedroom where she was asleep. Makhathini awoke and sat up.
“I asked her to tell me where the money is, and when she refused, I strangled her and then asked again, but she still refused.”
Mthabela said he then strangled her and went back home.
He said that the next day, he confessed to his friend about the killing.
He then fled the area and went to live in Chatsworth with his father. In March 2023, he went to the Chatsworth SAPS to confess.
The court heard that Mthabela, who is a father of two young children, was unemployed.
Mthabela said he was remorseful for his actions.
The State was represented by senior State advocate Lauren Marais.
The daughter-in-law has not been charged.
IOL