41-year-old woman arrested in the Wanter Dlamini murder case
A 41-year-old woman was arrested last Thursday in connection with the murder of Wanter Dlamini. This breakthrough in the case that set tongues wagging came about after the woman went to ground.
BARBERTON – Dlamini was murdered on January 6 in what could only be described as a well-designed plot in which her two daughters, Nonhlanhla and Mampum Mathunywa, were implicated.
The pair, allegedly with the help of two male accomplices, lured Dlamini to Nonhlanhla’s house, where the 62-year-old was brutally gang-raped and strangled.
According to the Mpumalanga police spokesperson, Brig Leonard Hlathi, Dlamini’s body was wrapped in a blanket and hidden in an outside toilet. Their sister, Bessie Van der Merwe, grew uneasy about Dlamini’s prolonged absence and lodged a missing person’s case at the Barberton Police Station.
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“It is not easy at all knowing that my sisters were involved in my mother’s murder. I cannot wait for the trial to resume. I’ll never forgive them, I want to see all of them rot in jail,” Van der Merwe said.
The latest arrest comes after the suspect evaded the police for a whole month. “The woman alleges that she was hiding somewhere in Gauteng, but the net had closed in on her and there was no way she would further escape her day in court,” Hlathi added.
In a macabre twist, it emerged that the murder had been planned since November, in an attempt to collect on an insurance policy that would pay out double if Dlamini died of unnatural causes.
The payout amount would have been R80 000 if their scheme had been successful. The latest suspect to be arrested will face a murder charge alongside the two sisters and Stanley Mashakeng, who was apprehended earlier this month after hiding under a bridge in Mbombela.
The provincial commissioner of police in Mpumalanga, Lt Gen Mondli Zuma, thanked the police for the swift arrest.
“We have kept our promise of ensuring that offenders will be brought to justice to face their crimes in court. In this instance, we believe that the detective team, the prosecution and the judiciary will ensure that justice is served in this case.
“When one looks at the allegations levelled against the suspects, it is evident that the morals of our society have collapsed to a point where some people are consumed by greed, which leads them to do unspeakable things, like killing their own for the sake of blood money.”
The court heard the outcome of the bail bid by 39-year-old Mampum Mthunywa, which the police are opposing.
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