An Mpumalanga woman who was allegedly raped and killed at the behest of her daughters, who wanted to cash in on her funeral policy, had survived being poisoned the day before, a court heard.
On Wednesday the Mbombela high court heard someone had put insect poison in Wanter Dlamini’s beer. However, she noticed something was not right and did not drink it.
Police found the beer in her fridge on the day her body was found on a railway track in Barberton.
Dlamini’s daughter Bathabile Mthunywa, 39, their neighbour Nombuso Ndwandwa, 41, and Steen Mashakeng, 36, are on trial for the rape and murder of the 62-year-old woman.
Mashakeng is the boyfriend of Dlamini’s other daughter, Nonhlanhla Mthunywa, who entered into a plea agreement with the state over the matter and is serving a 20-year sentence.
Prosecutor advocate Thulani Msibi said the state had reached an agreement with the accused that they will accept evidence from other witnesses, forensic results from the postmortem and pathology results, including some from the SA Police Service national laboratory.
This was done so witnesses did not have to testify in court, he said.
The evidence from Dr Daniel Sithole confirmed Dlamini was raped vaginally and anally before she was killed.
Evidence from Matseha Sadiki of the SAPS national laboratory showed a beer meant to be drunk by Dlamini the day before she was killed contained poison used to kill insects.
Dlamini’s other daughter, Bessie van der Merwe, earlier testified that the Saturday night before her mother was killed, she was at home having drinks with Nonhlanhla and Bathabile.
Van der Merwe, who was at work at the time, said her mother called her and told her she had poured beer in a glass and noticed it had changed colour.
“I told my mother to not drink the beer,” Van der Merwe said.
She said Bathabile and Nonhlanhla left her in the house. The next day, Dlamini went to the house where Nonhlanhla lived with her boyfriend. She was never seen alive again.
According to Van der Merwe, her mother had gone to the house to collect her phone after Nonhlanhla said it was with her.
“My mother did not come home after she went to fetch her phone. We searched for her with no luck. On Monday, police came to our house and said we must identify a person resembling our mother. When we got there, we found her dead.”
She said that during her interview with police, she told them about the beer which was in the fridge. Police took the alcohol for testing.
The court heard Bathabile, Ndwandwa and a former police officer known as “Maseko” went to Old Mutual’s offices to lodge a claim on the insurance policy taken out in Dlamini’s name without her knowledge
Old Mutual stopped the claim after police became involved.
The state alleges Ndwandwa took out a R40,000 funeral insurance policy in Dlamini’s name and worked with Nonhlanhla and Bathabile to kill her.
Allegations are that on the day Dlamini went to Mashakeng’s house, she was held against her will, raped, strangled and covered with a blanket.
The policy would pay R80,000 if she died accidentally, so they allegedly took Dlamini’s body to a railway line for a train to run over it. However, a passerby saw the body and notified police.
Sowetan
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