#KasiBester | Wife denies hand in Mahlangu’s faked death

Lerato Mahlangu, the Soshanguve woman accused of helping to orchestrate the shocking murder of her ex-lover, Sibusiso Sithebe, has denied setting up a meeting between her husband, Sibusiso Mahlangu, and their alleged victim before his brutal death. 

Lerato, alongside her husband, made a brief appearance at the Pretoria High Court on Monday.

Mahlangu has been infamously dubbed the “Kasi Bester” after faking his own death and using Sithebe’s body as a decoy in the brazen, alleged half-a-million-rand insurance scam that has left the nation reeling. 

The Mahlangus are accused of luring Sithebe to their home on New Year’s Day in 2022, filling him with alcohol, and then dousing his lifeless body in petrol in a brutal act that has sparked outrage.

Lerato has been directly implicated for falsely identifying Sithebe’s badly burned body as her husband’s, in an attempt to cash in on the insurance scam. 

In a previous testimony, she admitted to having an affair with Sithebe, which her husband, Sibusiso, testified had left him deeply hurt.

In court, Lerato described discovering the charred remains, which she claimed she innocently assumed was her husband’s. 

However, on the fateful day of Sithebe’s death in January 2022, Lerato has admitted to having multiple, tense phone conversations with him in an attempt to end the affair. 

She’s denied being present at the house when Sithebe met his end in the fire. 

Mahlangu spent over a year evading justice, having successfully faked his own death. 

His freedom was short-lived, as he was arrested last year when police discovered him in possession of a stolen vehicle and realised he had been falsely registered as deceased.

The case has been postponed to tomorrow, when Lerato will return to the stand for cross-examination.