Woman tells of murder plot against her
2012-10-29 08:30
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Mlondi Radebe, The Witness
Durban - For 30 minutes, Nomonde Dlamini sat and chatted with two men who tried to convince her that one wanted to date her.
However, she knew better: they had been hired to kill her and the price on her head was R5 000.
An amount of R1 000 had already been paid to the men, some of which they used to pay for food and drink, with the balance to be paid on completion of the job.
Dlamini also knew the identity of the person who wanted her dead - her future sister-in-law - and why: Dlamini’s parents, the last of whom died in 2006, had jointly left a home and vehicle to her and her brother.
And her brother’s fiancée was not inclined to share.
Rat poison
The first attempt on the pretty second-year financial management student’s life was to have been made earlier this month. The woman tried to get their domestic worker to put rat poison in her food.
However, the domestic worker declined to take part in the plot.
Undeterred in her bid to ensure her future husband became the sole beneficiary of the estate, the woman then hired two men to kill Dlamini, supplying them with her cellphone number.
One of the men called her on Monday, pretending to be someone she had previously met and who now wanted to date her.
Having already been alerted to the plot by the police, Dlamini, 27, of Newlands, Durban, agreed to meet the man and Suncoast Casino was chosen as the venue.
That night she could not sleep, knowing that the woman who wanted her dead, and with whom her relationship had never been warm, was under the same roof.
“I received the shock of my life when police revealed to me on Monday that there was a plot to kill me. I couldn’t sleep at night as she was in the house,” said Dlamini.
Wired so the police could listen to her conversation, Dlamini duly proceeded to meet her supposed suitor on Friday, with the officers in close attendance.
Panicking
She said she was asked to remain calm, as she was under police guard. However, Dlamini found it difficult to engage with the man, who arrived with a companion.
“It’s hard to have a meal with people you know are planning to kill you. I could not eat the food they ordered for me. I could only have the drink. I was panicking even though police were around, waiting for us to come out,” she said.
During the dinner, she told the men she did not know them and would never have given them her number because neither was her preferred type of man.
After the meal, Dlamini was offered a lift home by the men. Had she got into their vehicle, she fears she would have been raped and killed.
However, the men were nabbed as they walked out of the casino with Dlamini. Her brother’s fiancée was soon in cuffs too.
It is unclear how the men, believed to be from Umlazi, intended to kill Dlamini, as neither was armed when arrested.
Police spokesperson Colonel Vincent Mdunge said officers had been alerted to the plot by a source.
“Her brother’s fiancée saw her as an obstacle. She knew that if Dlamini was killed, all the property will fall in her fiancé’s name.”
The three are expected to appear in court soon.
