Pretoria – Three people, including a widow, have been found guilty of murdering Mpumalanga taxi owner Devilier Dan Zulu, who was fatally shot in his driveway in 2011.
Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi, the Mpumalanga provincial spokesperson for the Hawks, said after their conviction on Friday the trio will be sentenced on Thursday.
“Seetsa David Mofokeng, 44, Mojalefa Christopher Matsobane, 43, and Thembisa Zulu, 47, were convicted by the Delmas High Court on Friday,” said Sekgotodi.
“The conviction follows an incident which happened on July 4, 2011, where the deceased, Devilier Dan Zulu, a taxi owner, was shot in front of his gate at Extension 15 in Embalenhle.
“A case of murder was registered and transferred to the Hawks’ serious organised crime investigation based in Secunda for further probe.”
Sekgotodi said the investigation revealed that the wife had hired the hitmen.
“During the intelligence-driven investigation, it was established that Thembisa Zulu, the wife of the deceased, hired two hitmen, Mofokeng and Matsobane, who waylaid the deceased at his residence. It was further established that on the day in question, the deceased phoned the wife while at the gate. After opening the gate, the hitmen fatally wounded the victim and fled the scene,” said Sekgotodi.
“Mofokeng was found guilty of murder and the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition. Matsobane and the wife, Zulu, were found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit a crime.”
The case against the trio was postponed to Thursday for sentencing.
The three convicted inmates remain in custody.
Last month, the Polokwane High Court sentenced 40-year-old widow Mapula Florah Manaka to 27 years’ imprisonment for orchestrating the murder of her husband, Archie Manaka, who was 43 when he was killed in April 2020.
The court heard that the deceased’s wife, Mapula, and her boyfriend plotted the murder of Archie, who was an IT specialist in Polokwane.
“On April 8, 2020, the deceased was attacked and stabbed several times at his home in Moletjie, Ga-Makweya, in the Seshego policing area outside the City of Polokwane during what was believed to be a house robbery,” Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mamphaswa Seabi said at the time.
When police arrived at the scene, the deceased man’s wife reported that three unknown suspects had forcefully entered the house, attacked her husband and took an undisclosed amount of money and a laptop before fleeing the scene.
IOL