The Mpumalanga woman who claimed that she saw deputy president David  Mabuza drafting a hit-list for his political foes to be assassinated pleaded guilty to charges of fraud. 

Petronella Nomfundo Sambo,32, wrote an affidavit with the police stating that she was Thandeka Mabuza and that on November 6 2018 she saw David Mabuza on drafting the hit-list in his Johannesburg home.

In the affidavit, she alledged that nature conservationist Fred Daniel, who was not seeing eye to eye with Mabuza at the time, was number three on the list. 

That led Daniel to taking Mabuza to court at the time. 

State prosecutor Henry Nxumalo told the Nelspruit regional court that Sambo is facing three counts of fraud where in early 2018 Sambo defrauded Russels furniture store of an amount of R26,000 using someone else’s ID book. 

“In between November 6 and 12 the accused wrote an affidating [with the Lowscreek police] claiming that she was Thandeka Mabuza a niece to David Dabede Mabuza and saw him writing a hit-list. In 2019 the accused while on bail for the two above counts of fraud she opened a false case where she alledged that she has lost a work laptop worth R10,000 and R4,000 in cash,” said Nxumalo. 

When asked by magistrate Thandi Nyambi how she wanted to plead, Sambo said "guilty". 

“I plead guilty to the charges. I lied and I understand all my charges and the wrong I have done,” said Sambo. 

The mitigation and sentencing hearingfor Sambo was postponed to August 21 where a probation officer’s report is going to be heard. 

Sambo has been in police custody since December 2019 after she skipped previous court appearances before she was arrested again in Lowscreek on the third fraud charge.