Witness tells court accused told him so at his hideout
Dad 'killed' 4 kids because he suspected wife of cheating
Image: 123RF/3DRENDERINGS
Lucas Phasha, the Limpopo man accused of the murder of his four children, apparently told a relative that he was driven by suspicion that their mother was cheating on him.
This emerged yesterday in the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane through state witness Raymond Phasha. He told the court that the accused had told him before his arrest that he killed his four children because his wife was dating other men and that she neglected household duties.
Phasha is on trial for the murders of his children – Katlego, 9, Joyce, 7, Tshepo, 5, and Adel 3 – who were found dead at two separate locations in Selatole section of GaPhasha village near Burgersfort in February 18 last year.
He allegedly hacked three of the children with a panga and bludgeoned the fourth one with a stone. Phasha allegedly bludgeoned daughter Adel with a stone in a shack while her three siblings were asleep at around 2am at his home. He took the remaining three children to a secluded area where he allegedly killed them.
Raymond revealed to court that Phasha, his uncle, had told him he brutally murdered his children because their mother Sylvia Monyela was not bathing them and cleaning the yard.
"He said he is not going to allow any man to take his children. He further said that his children were always hungry as their mother was always away."
Raymond said he didn't ask what Phasha meant when he said he was not going to allow another man to take his children. He said Phasha revealed the tidbits to him when he visited him at his hideout in Zebediela after the murders.
Phasha's lawyer Lawrence Mkhize lost his application to stop Raymond from revealing what the father of the four children told him when he asked why killed the children.
The court further heard that Phasha posted on social media where he accused his wife of cheating on him with several men before the children were killed.
"Days before the children were killed, Phasha posted that a local taxi driver and a builder were wrecking his marriage," Raymond said when asked by prosecutor Mashudu Mudau.