{"id":386821,"date":"2026-08-20T07:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/386821\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T07:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:14:29","slug":"i-lured-mom-to-killers-and-watched-her-being-murdered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/386821\/","title":{"rendered":"I lured mom to killers and watched her being murdered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Story audio is generated using AI<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">An Mpumalanga woman has told the Mbombela high court how she lured her mother to a group of murderers, and then stood guard at the door watching as they pinned her down and killed her for an R80,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/news\/2026-08-05-daughters-plotted-to-kill-mom-to-cash-in-r80k-funeral-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/news\/2026-08-05-daughters-plotted-to-kill-mom-to-cash-in-r80k-funeral-policy\/\">funeral polic<\/a>y payout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nonhlanhla Mthunywa also told the court that her mother, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/news\/2026-08-06-mom-killed-for-funeral-cover-survived-poisoning-the-day-before\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/news\/2026-08-06-mom-killed-for-funeral-cover-survived-poisoning-the-day-before\/\">Wanter Dlamini<\/a>, 62, had survived poisoning and a shooting plan until she was finally strangled to death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mthunywa is a state witness who was also charged with her mother\u2019s murder, but entered a plea agreement with the state after she confessed to the crime saying she could not sleep as her mother was haunting her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">She is serving a 20-year jail sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mthunywa\u2019s sister, Bathabile Mthunywa, 39, their neighbour Nombuso Ndwandwa, 41, and Steen Mashakeng, 36, are on trial for the murder and rape of Dlamini. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mashakeng is Nonhlanhla Mthunywa\u2019s boyfriend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Another accused, known as Nkunzi and who was Ndwandwa\u2019s boyfriend, has since died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nonhlanhla Mthunywa, who arrived in court with her feet shackled, said the plan to kill her mother stemmed from a conversation with Ndwandwa about \u201cquick money\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cShe said if I want quick money we must work together and kill my mother and my brother. She sounded serious and said that there was a life <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/news\/2026-06-26-explainer-why-court-denied-bail-to-accused-in-the-r10m-insurance-murders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/news\/2026-06-26-explainer-why-court-denied-bail-to-accused-in-the-r10m-insurance-murders\/\">insurance<\/a> on them and we can live a nice life with quick money. A plan was then made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">She said she and Mashakeng went to Dlamini\u2019s house carrying poison that had been provided by Ndwandwa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">At the house, she poured the poison in her mother\u2019s drink, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">However the poison did not work as Dlamini took a sip and did not finish her drink \u201cwhich made me think she was suspecting something\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I told Ndwandwa that my mother did not die, she was very angry and told me that we need to finish her later in the evening,\u201d said the state witness. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">She said Ndwandwa and Nkunzi had arrived at her house and said they had to \u201cgo and finish Dlamini off as Nkunzi was in possession of a loaded gun\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The plan, she said, was that she would knock on the door, and when Dlamini opened, Nkunzi would shoot her. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">However, the cries of a small child in the house forced the plan to change. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When Nkunzi heard the cries, said Nonhlanhla Mthunywa, he said, \u201cif they find her (Dlamini) with people in the house everyone must die. So I had set another plan for her to be alone\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">She then lured her mother to her boyfriend\u2019s house the following day. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Then Ndwandwa and her boyfriend Nkunzi arrived and entered through the back door, Mthunywa said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">While still speaking outside the front door, Mashakeng pushed Dlamini inside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNdwandwa hit her on the head. She screamed once and fell down. Nkunzi went to her and started strangling her while Ndwandwa held her legs to stop her from moving. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cMashakeng pressed her down on the chest with his foot. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI quickly closed the door and stood guard there while they killed her. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWhen she was no longer moving Ndwandwa said to me, \u2018look your mother is dead now\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI nodded. She said as I did not participate in the killing I must now tear her (Dlamini\u2019s) panties so that it looked like she had been raped,\u201d said Mthunywa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It was previously revealed in court that Dlamini had been raped both vaginally and anally. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The trial continues on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Sowetan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story audio is generated using AI An Mpumalanga woman has told the Mbombela high court how she lured&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[184905,184901,184902,184900,184898,184906,4913,175034,184904,184899,131,175035,184903],"class_list":["post-386821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-bathabile-mthunywa","tag-dlamini-daughters-trial","tag-family-murder-plot","tag-funeral-policy-crime","tag-life-insurance-murder","tag-mbmbela-high-court","tag-mpumalanga","tag-nombuso-ndwandwa","tag-nonhlanhla-mthunywa","tag-nonhlanhla-mthunywa-testimony","tag-south-africa","tag-steen-mashakeng","tag-strangling-murder-case"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117126605280785425","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}