{"id":27942,"date":"2025-01-29T19:43:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=27942"},"modified":"2025-01-29T19:43:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:43:35","slug":"i-was-under-his-mercy-claims-woman-married-to-kasi-bester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2025\/01\/29\/i-was-under-his-mercy-claims-woman-married-to-kasi-bester\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI was under his mercy,\u201d claims woman married to ‘Kasi Bester’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In a stunning turn of events, convicted murderer Lerato Mahlangu has confessed that her initial testimony was a fabrication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahlangu, who was found guilty of premeditated murder alongside her husband, Sibusiso, in November, made the shocking admission during pre-sentencing proceedings at the Pretoria High Court.<\/p>\n

Mahlangu told the court that her initial testimony was a web of deceit, aimed at concealing the truth behind the brutal murder of her lover and first-born child\u2019s father, Sibusiso Sithebe, whose body was used to claim a hefty R 575 000 insurance payout.<\/p>\n

The court heard that Mahlangu’s husband, Sibusiso, had orchestrated the scheme, threatening his wife into going along with the plot or face a similar fate as her lover.<\/p>\n

Sithebe was lured to the Mahlangu residence in January 2022, where Lerato got him intoxicated before her husband carried out the murder, burning him alive.<\/p>\n

In a disturbing twist, it emerged that the couple’s two pre-teen daughters were drawn into the deception, forced to call their father “Angel” to conceal his identity from family members who believed he was dead.<\/p>\n

Lerato claimed that she had lied to the court out of fear for her life, alleging that her husband had threatened to kill her if she didn’t corroborate his story.<\/p>\n

She detailed how Mahlangu became increasingly abusive after finding out about the affair.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was under his mercy. He had a way he would talk to me where I would feel belittled,\u201d she told the court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me it\u2019s my fault that the father of my child has died. He said if people should blame anyone it should be me, because if I had been faithful in our marriage none of that would have happened,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The prosecution, however, questioned Mahlangu’s motives, asking why she had never gone to the police with the truth if she genuinely feared for her life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>State Prosecutor, Vusimuzi Tshabalala, further probed why Lerato had not confided in her lawyer.<\/p>\n

The case has sparked widespread outrage, with Sithebe’s relatives calling for the killer couple to spend their lives behind bars.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Pretoria High Court will continue to hear testimony in the coming days, with the Mahlangus looking to plead their final case for why they should be given a lenient sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a stunning turn of events, convicted murderer Lerato Mahlangu has confessed that her initial testimony was a fabrication.\u00a0 Mahlangu, who was found guilty of premeditated murder alongside her husband, Sibusiso, in November, made the shocking admission during pre-sentencing proceedings at the Pretoria High Court. Mahlangu told the court that ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":27943,"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-27942","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\/123EB83E-D270-454C-B7F0-8F0200B28C33-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942","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=27942"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27950,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27942\/revisions\/27950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}