The policewoman accused of masterminding her husband’s murder, has been remanded in custody again.

Sergeant Nyiko Jacobeth Nyathi (42) briefly appeared before the Mapulaneng Magistrate’s Court on March 28. The court remanded her in custody pending her next court appearance set for April 9, when a formal bail application will be submitted.

Nyathi previously submitted an application for the presiding magistrate, Tanya du Preez, to recuse herself and be replaced by a neutral one. “The magistrate is the wife of the accused’s former commander and it is for this reason that we applied that she recuses herself from the case, but she has since refused to do so,” said Nyathi’s lawyer, Adv Vusi Segodi.

Segodi said there is a possibility the magistrate might discuss the case with her husband and therefore have biases regarding the details. “There is just no way that the accused can have a fair trial under the circumstances,” he warned.

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Sergeant Nyathi, who works as a detective, disappeared from the Bushbuckridge Police Station on March 7. This was after the SABC’s Morning Live breakfast show prematurely announced her looming arrest earlier that morning. On March 10, she returned and handed herself over.

Nyathi is accused of hiring hitmen to kill her estranged husband, Alber Mashego (44), and Victoria Lebjane (44), his pregnant girlfriend.

A group of armed men attacked Mashego at his home in Boikhotso near Bushbuckridge on the night of February 5 last year. They demanded his bank card, but he told them it was with Lebjane, who lived in Zoeknog a few kilometres away. They then demanded money and cellphones, before forcing Mashego to phone Lebjane to make arrangements to collect the bank card. His attackers then took his two cars and drove to his girlfriend’s house with him.

“Upon arrival at Lebjane’s residence, the perpetrators ordered Mashego to knock on the door. He quickly entered the house and closed the door again, but his attackers shot through it, killing the couple,” said the National Prosecuting Authority’s regional spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa.

The perpetrators ransacked the house and searched the couple, stealing R4 000 in cash as well as Mashego’s bank card.

Investigations led to the arrest of four suspects, including Witness Monareng (28), who has since pleaded guilty after his fingerprints were found at the crime scene. He was sentenced to 77 years behind bars for premeditated murder, armed robbery, theft and kidnapping.

The other accused, Themba Mokoena, Thabang Malumane and Thabiso Malope, are still on trial at the time of publishing.