Former City Press editor Matata Tsedu’s daughter-in-law Mulalo Sivhidzo was sentenced to life in prison by the High Court in Johannesburg on Monday for murdering her husband Avhatakali Netshisaulu.
Her co-accused Ntabudzeni Matzhenene and Arnold Sello were also sentenced to life in prison for the murder.
The three were given an additional five years each for kidnapping Netshisaulu and three years for damage to property, National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Charlene Labuschagne said.
They were found guilty last year.
The court found Sivhidzo planned the crime with Matzhenene, who then arranged for hitman Sello and other accomplices, who were not identified during the hearing, to kill her husband.
Tsedu, Netshisaulu’s father, told reporters after the sentencing that he, together with his murdered son’s mother Dzudzuzani, held no grudges against Sivhidzo’s parents, the SABC reported.
“But the attitude displayed towards us by Mulalo’s parents is as if we had killed their child,” he said.
Netshisaulu’s killers forced him off a road in Honeydew four years ago, led him an isolated spot where they assaulted and set him alight in the boot of his car.
He was “cremated alive” and treated “without mercy”, Judge Naren Pandya said during his judgment. — Sapa