Cops told me to confess - 'dead man'

A Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, man accused of killing and burning his ex-wife's boyfriend and then faking his own death has told the Pretoria high court that he was threatened by a police captain to falsely confess to the murder.

Sibusiso Mahlangu – who is believed to have killed Sibusiso Sithebe, his wife's former boyfriend and father to their child   – took the witness stand on Tuesday and said  he was told to make a false confession or else his family would get arrested.

Mahlangu and his wife Lerato were arrested in April last year and charged with Sithebe's murder. Sithebe was burnt to death in the couple's house. 

Their arrest came after Mahlangu was caught driving a suspected stolen car. 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.

According to the confession, taken by Capt Phanuel Molefe, Mahlangu was from a family lunch on New Year's Eve of 2022, and after having a meal with his family he decided to go and have a couple of drinks at his place.

As he was sitting at home, a man suddenly barged into their house, and an argument ensured between them.

Mahlangu then overpowered the man, who then collapsed.

I don't quite remember everything [he said]... I was quite flabbergasted, he then said 'everything will be okay' and that he is going to help meSibusiso Mahlangu 

After the man collapsed, Mahlangu carried him into his bedroom and set him alight.

The confession further says Mahlangu then escaped the crime scene and went into hiding.

From there, his wife Lerato positively identified the dead man as Mahlangu. Lerato later got a R500,000 payout from an insurance policy.

In his evidence-in-chief, Mahlangu said he was forced to give that version.

"After I was arrested for possession of the [stolen] vehicle [in April 2023], a man who introduced himself as Capt Molefe approached me and started asking me about my family. He told me about a person who was buried as me.

"I don't quite remember everything [he said]... I was quite flabbergasted, he then said 'everything will be okay' and that he is going to help me.

"He [Molefe] seemed pretty genuine, he would say 'ska warra mfanaka (don't worry my dude)'. At the time he sounded like a person I can trust. [Days] later he came back and gave me the version that I should take and that if I don't do so the consequences would be that he would arrest my family," said Mahlangu.

After his arrest, Mahlangu was taken back to his marital house for a pointing out as it was where Sithebe died.

However, Mahlangu testified yesterday that when the police took him there, he had no knowledge that the  pointing out was in relation to the murder he allegedly committed.

He also denied the version of Lerato's cousin Chand Themba, who testified that a month after they buried the man they thought was Mahlangu, Lerato gave him R1,000 to go to Secunda in Mpumalanga, where he would start a car wash business.

Themba said during his trip to Mpumalanga, he got a call from Lerato, who warned him not to be scared of what he would see when he got there. And he was shocked to see Mahlangu on arrival as he thought they buried him a month before.

However, Mahlangu denied this in court. "I was not in Secunda, I was in Nelspruit the whole time until last year in April [about two weeks before his arrest] and everything Chand said about me is false, and I don't know why he said all that."

Mahlangu told the court that although he is not "perfect", he would never watch his family bury someone's child in the belief that it was him. He said he knew nothing about the murder of the man whom his wife was cheating with.

The trial continues on Wednesday.