THANDI Maqubela, who was arrested in March last year over the murder of her husband, acting judge Patrick Maqubela, is one of the latest woman to be tried for murdering their husbands.
Often dubbed "black widows" after the female spider which kills the male after mating, these women have captured the public's attention.
Maqubela was arrested at her Sandton, Johannesburg, home nine months after her husband was found dead in a Bantry Bay Hotel. He was found wrapped in a sheet, a bloody pillow nearby, and the heating turned up.
Last week, former schoolteacher Adelaide Hlongwane, 46, was sentenced for 25 years by the Middelburg circuit of the Pretoria High Court for killing her husband.
"She hired five men to kill her husband Solomon Hlongwane in December 2007," said Mpumalanga police spokesman Colonel Leonard Hlathi.
Hlongwane's body was found lying outside his shop in Doornkop near Middelburg.
In April this year, the Pretoria High Court found Mamelodi widow Margaret Thole and her lover guilty of killing her police captain husband in 2008.
Thole, 28, and Kabelo Molopyane, 28, killed Captain Charles Thole, 50, at his home in September 2008.
Thole was shot in the head in a garage he had turned into a spaza shop. He had been with the VIP protection unit in Pretoria for 14 years.
In 2006, Taliep Petersen was shot dead in his home in what appeared to be a robbery. Six months later his wife Najwa was arrested with accomplices. Najwa is serving 28 years.
Ruby Marais was sentenced in a Swellendam court for her role in her husband Bassie Marais's murder in 2006. He was stabbed to death with a fishing knife. Marais claimed in court that she had not wanted to kill her husband but merely taught him a lesson as he had been abusive.
Marais and contract killer Ricardo Piedt received life sentences.
Two sisters who were also involved in the murder's planning, Hester Afrika and Elizabeth Lawerdien, received 16-year sentences.
Marais was denied leave to appeal her conviction last year September.
In March last year, Celiwe Mbokazi was found guilty of plotting the murder of her husband, Heia Safari Lodge owner Frans Richter in 2007.
In his will, she was the beneficiary of a R1-million trust fund and would after his death also have taken ownership of the house and received custody of three children who would inherit R500000.
In March this year, Mulalo Sivhidzho's case was heard in the Johannesburg High Court. She was accused of hiring men to kill her husband, former City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu's son Avhatakali Netshisaulu, in 2006.