Mpumalanga policewoman remanded in custody for the third time

The policewoman who is accused of having masterminded the assassination of her husband and his pregnant girlfriend was remanded in custody for the third time.

Sergeant Nyiko Jacobeth Nyathi (42) appeared in the Mapulaneng Magistrate’s Court today, March 17, and was remanded in custody until Wednesday, March 26.

When the matter was postponed on Wednesday, March 12, Nyathi was told it was because a neutral prosecutor and magistrate had to be appointed to handle her bail application.

According to a provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Jabu Ndubane, these officials were only appointed today and the prosecutor would need time to review the case.

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Nyathi was arrested on Monday, March 10, after she handed herself over at the Bushbuckridge Police Station, where she is employed as a police detective.

This was after the police had failed to arrest her on Friday, March 7, when the SABC’s breakfast show, Morning Live, aired her imminent arrest prematurely that morning.

The police had intended to arrest Nyathi at her workplace, but were told she was off sick. They went to her house only to be met with an open garage door, suggesting she had evaded the arrest.

She 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. 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 cars to drive to his girlfriend’s house.

“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.

They then retrieved the bank card from her pocket and fled the scene,” said the NPA’s regional spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa.

The perpetrators searched the couple and the house, and managed to steal R4 000 in cash and Mashego’s bank card, which is said to have been in Lebjane’s pocket.

Investigations led to the arrest of four suspects and one of them, Witness Monareng (28), pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 77 years behind bars for premeditated murder, armed robbery, theft and kidnapping.

The other arrested suspects who are still on trial are Themba Mokoena, Thabang Malumane and Thabiso Malope.