Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Mpumalanga woman who hired hitmen to murder her husband for a hefty insurance payout has been sentenced to life in prison.
The Mpumalanga High Court sentenced Phumaphi Gloria Gwebu for the murder of Sipho Shadrack Dimba on 19 December 2019.
The police arrested Gwebu, 47, in 2020 after one of the hitmen confessed to receiving R20 000 from her to kill Dimba.
She also pleaded guilty to the crime and told the court she had taken out five insurance policies for Dimba.
One of them was to pay out R530 000.
Gwebu waited for the policies to mature and hired the killers to murder Dimba, 52.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said the killers stormed the couple’s house in Msogwaba Trust, where they lived with their children.
“They went straight to the bed where the deceased was sleeping. They grabbed and strangled him to death in full view of the accused. They then took the deceased’s body, threw it into the nearby river, and fled.
“The accused paid the hitmen R20 000 for the task. Two days later, a passer-by noticed the deceased’s body in the river and alerted the family who called the police,” added Nyuswa.
Prosecutor Eugene Mathebula argued the murder was premeditated.
Nyuswa said the NPA welcomed the sentence.
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