Councillor implicated in murder of husband

AN ANC councillor has been implicated in a bizarre murder plot that failed twice but succeeded on the third try.

Oudtshoorn councillor Magdaleen Titus was arrested on Valentine’s Day for allegedly hiring hitmen to murder her husband, Preston‚ who was stabbed and hammered to death at their military base home in December.

Titus appeared in the Oudtshoorn Regional Court on Wednesday in a bid to be released, but her bail application was postponed to February 21‚ National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said.

Events leading to Titus’s death were revealed in a plea agreement entered into with the state by Sixabiso Klip – Magdaleen’s former driver who knew the family well.

Last month, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for murdering South African National Defence Force (SANDF) member Titus.

In the plea agreement‚ Klip said a plot was initially hatched to take Titus out as he was driving a car, but that was replaced with the idea of drugging him with brake fluid.

Two hitmen were allegedly offered R30 000 each to execute the plan.

The first attempt was planned for November 31, but things went awry.

The following day the conspirators visited the house‚ armed with pepper spray and sleeping tablets.

However, they abandoned the plan because of possible witnesses.

That evening‚ the hitmen decided to pounce again‚ but make the incident look like a house robbery.

Crushed sleeping tablets were put into Titus’s dinner. Later, he was stabbed and beaten with a hammer.

Klip was arrested five days after the murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison on January 19. – TimesLIVE