{"id":27899,"date":"2025-01-28T19:24:57","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T17:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=27899"},"modified":"2025-01-28T19:25:34","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T17:25:34","slug":"sibusiso-sithebes-relatives-reject-kasi-besters-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2025\/01\/28\/sibusiso-sithebes-relatives-reject-kasi-besters-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"Sibusiso Sithebe&#8217;s relatives reject &#8216;Kasi Bester&#8217;s&#8217; apology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-27900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/13572AAB-CE98-4B74-9849-A5ABBEDDF6D8-770x578.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/13572AAB-CE98-4B74-9849-A5ABBEDDF6D8-770x578.jpeg 770w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/13572AAB-CE98-4B74-9849-A5ABBEDDF6D8-1170x878.jpeg 1170w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/13572AAB-CE98-4B74-9849-A5ABBEDDF6D8-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/13572AAB-CE98-4B74-9849-A5ABBEDDF6D8-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/13572AAB-CE98-4B74-9849-A5ABBEDDF6D8-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The parole officer of self-confessed killer, Sibusiso Mahlangu, has recommended that he spend the rest of his life behind bars.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In a shocking turn of events in the Pretoria High Court today, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2024\/10\/15\/kasibester-wife-denies-hand-in-mahlangus-faked-death\/\">Mahlangu confessed to killing his wife&#8217;s<\/a> lover, Sibusiso Sithebe, and burning his body to claim an insurance payout.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mahlangu and his wife, Lerato, were found guilty of the crime in November.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>With a looming life sentence and despite previously pleading innocence, Mahlangu admitted to setting the deceased on fire and benefiting over half a million rand after faking his own death.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am truly sorry to the Sithebe family for your loss. It wasn&#8217;t my intention to hurt anyone. I don&#8217;t know how I got to that place. For the pain that I caused, I am sorry,&#8221; he said from the dock.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the shocking confession, Probation Officer, Thokozane Mbatha, had testified that Mahlangu showed no remorse for his actions.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mbatha recommended a life sentence for him as a result.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The accused displayed a lack of caring and indicated that he would accept whatever judgment the court would impose. He displayed no empathy or concern for the victim&#8217;s family and the trauma they experienced as a result of the crimes he committed,&#8221; he told the court.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor, Vusimuzi Tshabalala, said that the change of heart may have been an attempt to lessen the severity of his pending sentence.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>&#8220;All you want to do here, is to let the court be lenient with you,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the family of Sibusiso Sithebe, whose charred remains were used as a decoy in the brazen insurance scam, say they believe more people are behind his killing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Xolani Sithebe described how he scoured the city&#8217;s mortuaries for over a year in search of his older brother&#8217;s body.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He described the horror of finding out that Lerato Mahlangu was behind the killing, saying it&#8217;s only an animal who can kill the father of her child.<\/p>\n<p>The Sithebe family has shrugged off Mahlangu&#8217;s apology, calling for the couple to spend their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>&#8220;If he can bring back my brother, then we can try and reconcile. But he can never come back, so what forgiveness is he looking for? He must stay in jail,&#8221; said Xolani.<\/p>\n<p>The matter returns to court tomorrow (Wednesday), when convicted killer Lerato takes to the stand for sentencing proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The parole officer of self-confessed killer, Sibusiso Mahlangu, has recommended that he spend the rest of his life behind bars.\u00a0 In a shocking turn of events in the Pretoria High Court today, Mahlangu confessed to killing his wife&#8217;s lover, Sibusiso Sithebe, and burning his body to claim an insurance payout.\u00a0 ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":27900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/13572AAB-CE98-4B74-9849-A5ABBEDDF6D8-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27899"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27911,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27899\/revisions\/27911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}