Policeman, brother get life sentence for murdering sister-in-law for taxi business
Image: Gallo Images/Foto24/Lulama Zenzile
A police constable and his brother plotted to kill two sisters to inherit a taxi business but their gruesome plan saw them sentenced to life behind bars instead on Monday.
Police spokesperson Capt Mavela Masondo said that Thulani Madide, 35, and his brother Xolani, 34, had hired a hitman in 2015 to kill the wife of their late brother and her sister in order to inherit a taxi business.
The sisters were murdered but the hitman, Sicelo Ndebele, 28, was only unmasked after being arrested for an unrelated armed robbery and possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition which were sent for ballistic tests.
“The ballistic report revealed that the firearms were used in the commission of the murder of two sisters. Thorough police investigation linked Ndebele and the two brothers to the double murder,” Masondo said.
Judge Majake Mabesele said in sentencing the brothers at the high court in Johannesburg: "When members of the public kill police on duty they get life imprisonment and the same thing should happen if a police officer kills a member of the public whom he should protect.”