Assassination plotter jailed
2009-07-20 22:11
Middelburg - The mastermind behind the murder of a deputy mayor in Mpumalanga was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Monday.
Building contractor Florence Lukhele, 32, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced in the Middelburg circuit of the North Gauteng High Court for the assassination of Thandy Mtsweni, deputy mayor of the Govan Mbeki local municipality in Secunda.
Mtsweni was gunned down in front of her husband and son at their home in Leslie on June 27, 2007. At the time, she had been investigating housing tender irregularities at the council.
Lukhele's three co-accused will have to return to the same court on Tuesday. They are suspected hitmen Themba Ntombela, Sikhosiphe Gwala and Neo Moloi.
Mayor also arrested
Municipal Mayor Sipho Nkosi was also arrested in connection with Mtsweni's murder, but he and another suspect, Madoda Nkambule, walked free due to a lack of evidence.
The four remaining accused were denied bail and have been in custody since their arrest in August 2007.
Nkosi was implicated when Lukhele told the Evander Magistrate's Court in August 2007 that Nkosi had given her R30 000 to kill Mtsweni.
Nkosi, who was sitting in the public gallery at the time, was immediately arrested and later released on R10 000 bail.
Plotted to kill mayor
In a dramatic twist, Nkosi then testified that Mtsweni had hired a hitman to kill him for R100 000 in 2006.
He said the hitman had called him to warn him about the plot.
He also claimed that Mtsweni and Lukhele used muthi on his car so that he would be killed in an accident. He was involved in an accident in 2006, but survived.
Nkosi claimed Mtsweni then let a poisonous snake loose in his office, but the snake was caught before it had a chance to bite him.
The ANC in Mpumalanga suspended Nkosi as mayor and then re-instated him in May last year when he was cleared of any involvement in Mtsweni's assassination.