I just wanted to find myself – Soshanguve murder accused

Mahlangu says he was just not in the right space at the time

The Soshanguve man who allegedly killed his wife’s ex-boyfriend then faked his death says he did not even contact his children to check up on them while in hiding because he wanted to find himself following the discovery that his wife was cheating on him.

Asked by the judge whether he did not care about his children hence he did not contact them, Sibusiso Mahlangu said he was just “not in the right space at the time”.

“I was not okay, I was depressed. I had lost my uncle, had just discovered that my wife cheated and the only mistake I did was to walk away from my family. I was not okay I just wanted to find myself,” Mahlangu said.

Mahlangu and his wife Lerato are on trial for murder at Pretoria high court.

They are accused of killing Lerato’s ex boyfriend Sibusiso Sithebe, who is also a father to her daughter.

The couple was arrested last year and charged with Sithebe’s murder who was burnt to death in their house.

“I was not okay, I was depressed. I had lost my uncle, had just discovered that my wife cheated and the only mistake I did was to walk away from my family. I was not okay I just wanted to find myself,”Sibusiso Mahlangu

The state alleges that Lerato called Sithebe to her Soshanguve home on New Year’s Day in 2022. And while Sithebe was there, she and her husband murdered him.

Afterwards, the couple allegedly burnt Sithebe’s body and then Lerato passed it off as belonging to Mahlangu and claimed half a million rand in an insurance payout.

Their arrest came after Mahlangu was caught driving a suspected stolen car in Hammanskraal a year later. It was when he was booked into custody that he allegedly told police officers that he was in fact registered as a dead person, and then allegedly confessed to Sithebe’s murder.

On Wednesday, Mahlangu said while in police custody he called  Lerato to ask for money that the police had “demanded” for his release.

At that point, he had not spoken to Lerato in a year, he said.

“I called my wife and told her that I have been arrested and I needed money and she sounded shocked and scared,” he said.

Lerato’s lawyer, Ledile Mphela – who was cross examining Mahlangu – said the reason she was shocked was  because she knew that her husband was dead.

Mahlangu’s evidence is that after he dropped Lerato at a taxi rank on January 1 2022, he went to their marital home and picked a backpack with two pairs of jeans, boxer short, a couple of T-shirts then left for Silverton.

At the time, Lerato was supposed to go to KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga where she worked at a financial institution. 

Mahlangu said three days after moving to Silverton he went to Nelspruit where he met a woman who then became his girlfriend.

After a while he met another woman and started a relationship with her too.

He then decided to go to Hammanskraal with the car of the first lady and that is where he was arrested because the owner had reported it as stolen.

During cross-examination, prosecutor Vusimuzi Tshabalala s told Mahlangu that he found it interesting that  for a full year he didn't bother to go to his house in Soshanguve to fetch his remaining clothes even when he was nearby in Hammanskraal days leading to his arrest.

He also questioned why he endured suffering while he had comforts that he left behind.

“Even in Mpumalanga you slept in the floor and didn’t even have a bed while you had a bed in Soshanguve,” he said.

In his response Mahlangu said he didn’t care because he had left to find myself.

“I didn’t care about materialistic things,” he said.

Judge Mokhine Mosopa also asked Mahlangu:  “So why did you not contact your kids? So you didn’t care about your kids?” to which he responded: “I was not in the right space at the time.”

However, Tshabalala told Mahlangu that his actions spoke louder than words and they showed that he did not care about his children.

Mahlangu had also testified that he had taken his car to the mechanic before going to Silverton.

Asked about what had happened to his car after his disappearance, Mahlangu said: I don’t know what happened to the car, but I understand that my mom and wife took it days before the funeral.

He also said that in the two weeks that he spent in Hammanskraal before his arrest it never occurred to him to go and check on his mother.

The trial continues.

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