Maid-turned-wife kills husband
PHOTO: SANDILE NDLOVU BODY OF 61-YEAR-OLD MAN EXHUMED FROM GRAVE IN THE BUSH MAN WHO HELPED HER AND HER LOVER BURY THE BODY CONFESSES TO POLICE
A WOMAN and her boyfriend allegedly killed her husband, wrapped up his body in a blanket and then spent two nights digging a hole to bury him in the bush in Hammanskraal, outside Pretoria.
The 37-year-old woman had been on the run for about two weeks before she handed herself over to the Temba police yesterday afternoon – just hours after her husband’s body was exhumed by police in the bush in Bosplaas.
Selaelo Lekalakala, 61, a government employee who was set to retire this year, was allegedly killed by his new wife and her unknown boyfriend on December 30 2016 at the deceased’s house in Ramotse section.
According to neighbours, the new wife had recently married Lekalakala after having worked for him as a housekeeper following the death of his wife in 2014.
She hardly socialised with other people in the community, neighbours said.
“Her boyfriend only started living with them late last year, and she introduced him to her husband as her nephew.
“A night before Lekalakala disappeared, there was a big fight between the boyfriend and the deceased. And then days passed without [us] seeing him, and that’s when we became worried because the wife didn’t seem bothered,” said a neighbour who lives next to the couple’s home.
Lekalakala’s sister Deborah said: “On January 15 I got a message from my brother’s neighbour that he had not been seen for sometime. My mother then went to his house to get more
“She introduced boyfriend to her husband as her nephew
clarity from his wife.
“When my mother asked her why she had not reported my brother missing, she just kept quiet.”
The community searched for him for two weeks before they forced the woman to open a case of a missing person.
Provincial police spokesman Captain Kay Makhubele said an accomplice who only took part in the concealment of the body approached the police to reveal the mystery behind Lekalakala’s disappearance.
This was after concerned community members forced his young wife to report her husband missing to the police on January 16, before she also vanished.
“The man first confessed to a friend, and the friend told him to report the matter to the police.
“He told us that the wife’s boyfriend, who is also his friend, had called him on December 31 asking him to help him carry a load of rubbish to the bush.
“When he arrived at the house he saw something wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a big tub. He then helped the couple to carry the tub to the bush at night. They then dug a hole but it was too shallow, so they left the body there and came back the next night to dig even deeper and buried it there,” Makhubele said.
The accomplice-turnedstate witness only realised on the second night that what was actually being buried was a human being.
Makhubele said the witness might also be charged with defeating the ends of justice. A case of murder had been opened against the woman and her lover, who is still on the run.
Another police officer told Sowetan that it had taken them several hours on Wednesday for the friend to point out where they had buried Lekalakala’s body.
“We came in the morning but he kept telling us that he could not remember when the body was buried.
“We then came back around 11pm with the dog unit and we threatened to beat him up, and that’s when he showed us the right spot,” said the officer.