Family of Soshanguve man who 'faked his death' express their pain and anger

The family of a man who allegedly plotted with his wife to fake his death on Thursday told TimesLIVE they were battling to comprehend the pain he had put them through. 

One of Sibusiso Mahlangu's sisters, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, explained how a year ago they did their best to give their brother what they thought was a dignified burial. 

She said her sister-in-law, Lerato, was the one who identified the badly burnt body as that of her husband.

“The only person who identified him is his wife. I personally went to the mortuary. He was badly burnt. When they showed me him I cried and said this is not my brother, and they said it was the same person they took from the house,” said the woman. 

“We buried him. If only I had listened to my gut at that time,” she said. 

She was speaking on the sidelines of the court proceedings where her brother, Sibusiso, 33, and his wife, Lerato, 32, had just appeared in court.

Outside court, Lerato and Sibusiso's families — who were once united in their grief — clashed as one accused the other of concealing the truth. 

“Today I am surprised that Lerato's family doesn't know anything, but they were with us the whole process,” the woman said. 

“It's so painful that we went through ... all those emotions for nothing, while someone was alive sitting wherever he was,” said the 35-year-old woman. 

She said she was pregnant at the time of her brother's supposed death. She recalled how stressed she was, even fearing the possibility of losing her baby. 

“He made us fools and put us in debt. He killed our emotions. When we see him now, we are no longer happy that he is alive,” the woman said. 

She had pertinent questions for her brother: “Why did you make us bury someone while you are alive? Why did you kill our souls? What did we do to you?”

Her anger towards her sister-in-law was also palpable. 

“Lerato sat with us from Sunday until Saturday when we buried. She saw us crying and mourning while she knew that we were mourning the wrong person,” she said.

The family now has safety concerns.

“The sad part is that outside we have to pay their price. The community is raging for our blood. What did we do? We have children and we don't walk with them. Our parents are distressed now,” she said.

Sibusiso and Lerato made a brief appearance before the Soshanguve magistrate's court, where their case was postponed. 

They face charges of premeditated murder, defeating the administration of justice and fraud in relation to the death of Lerato's former lover.

With a glammed-up face, Lerato on Thursday catwalked into the courtroom with her husband behind her, much to the irritation of the people in the gallery, who started murmuring.

Asking for a postponement, the state told the court the investigation had not been concluded and the DNA results were still outstanding.

According to National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana, the couple is alleged to have killed Lerato's lover and burnt his body at their RDP house in block HH, Soshanguve, in January 2022.

“It is alleged that the wife then falsely claimed that the burnt dead body was that of her husband and registered his death at the department of home affairs. She allegedly got a fake death certificate knowing her husband was alive and allegedly buried the wrong person knowingly after it is alleged that she also claimed money for policies,” said Mahanjana.

The couple were arrested in April after the husband was found in possession of a stolen car in Hammanskraal.

TimesLIVE