'They were not a friendly couple,' say neighbours of Soshanguve couple embroiled in fake death case

Community members of Soshanguve Block HH who witnessed the fire they believed killed their neighbour, Sibusiso Mahlangu — the Soshanguve man who faked his own death —  might have moved on from the shocking saga, but there was ire and disdain towards Mahlangu and his wife, Lerato, for their alleged heinous acts.

Sibusiso and Lerato Mahlangu have for the past few days been appearing at the Pretoria high court, where they are on trial not only for faking Sibusiso's death but for allegedly killing Lerato’s former partner and the father of her child, Sibusiso Sithebe, whose body they allegedly used to pose as that of Sibusiso Mahlangu’s.

According to the court indictment, the Mahlangu couple lured Lerato's ex to their marital home on January 1 2022, where they allegedly gave him alcohol, doused him with petrol and set him alight as he passed out.

The couple is accused of defrauding Old Mutual of more than R500,000 in life cover as they said it was Sibusiso Mahlangu who died in the flames. But their cover was blown when he was caught in a roadblock in Hammanskraal last year while driving a stolen car.

Back where the crime happened, a quiet neighbourhood was still trying to come to terms with seeing a dead man walking.

Residents spoke anonymously to TimesLIVE Premium about how they were moved when Lerato cried inconsolably when she discovered the burnt body in her home. 

“We wiped her tears and even tried to give her sugar water. It was so sad and painful to see and hear her cry like that. She was distraught and wailing,” one neighbour said. 

“A year later, we were shocked to see Sibusiso right outside the house, in handcuffs, with police. We were asking ourselves how we are seeing this man standing in front of us when we know he died in a fire a year before. We even saw the burnt body in the house through the window,” he said.

Mahlangu was seen with the police last year after he informed them of allegedly killing someone once he was caught and arrested.

“I woke up one morning and there he was outside. He was alive. I thought I had seen a ghost, but he was standing there,” said one of the neighbours.

The neighbours did not know much about the couple as they are said to have kept to themselves and rarely spoke to or engaged with the community. 

“I wouldn’t say that Sibusiso [Mahlangu] was part of the community. We didn’t really know him because he didn’t engage with us. Instead, we would see him driving by in a car without greeting,” said a man who lived near the couple.

Another resident, who said she was among the people who rushed to the scene when they heard and saw the fire, said the couple were not friendly.

“They always did everything together. They were not friendly at all, including Lerato. You could tell that they minded their own business and didn’t want to be bothered. There was a time when they stopped living here and there was a man who drove a van [who lived on the property]. But suddenly we started seeing the couple again shortly before the fire happened. They probably returned so they can plot this murder,” she said.

The court heard last week how Lerato said she was in KwaMhlanga when her neighbour called her to alert her to the fire. Since she knew no-one in the area, she requested an Uber which dropped her off at a spaza shop not far from the burning house.

But according to those who helped in extinguishing the fire, Lerato arrived between 15 and 30 minutes after she was called, despite KwaMhlanga, in Mpumalanga, being quite a distance away. 

“She came so quickly and the Uber dropped her off down the street. It makes no sense why the Uber did not drop her off at the house. I don’t believe that she was in KwaMhlanga. We saw her walking up the street towards the house with just a handbag.”

More than a year since the couple's arrest, which locals have since dubbed the “Soshanguve Thabo Bester”, the house is now occupied by a new owner.

The small RDP house had undergone some renovations as the walls were plastered and unpainted. Debris and a broken bathroom sink lay at the back of the house, but there was no-one home at the time of TimesLIVE Premium's visit.

Meanwhile, things have been tough for the family of Sibusiso Sithebe, who was allegedly murdered in the house. For over a year, they had looked for him, wondering how he had simply vanished in January 2022 until hearing how he had died. 

His sister, Linah Sithebe, told TimesLIVE Premium how she had tried to access the house to collect her brother’s spirit for his reburial after he was dug up from the grave which was initially marked as Sibusiso Mahlangu's.

“I went there last year and asked the new owner if I can perform a ceremony to collect my brother’s spirit, but unfortunately he refused because he is a Christian and doesn’t believe in such things,” she said.

Neighbours said since the fire and the funeral, which was held by the Mahlangu family, Lerato was never seen in the neighbourhood.

“After the fire happened, we didn’t see her again. We tried to reach her to get funeral details, but she had switched off her phone. We don’t even know where the funeral happened. She never returned to the house. The next time we heard of Lerato was when they got arrested last year.”

The trial has already revealed some explosive information, with Lerato alleging that she and Sithebe had been having an affair and that on the day before he died and mysteriously turned up dead at her house, she had ended things with him. The reason she had ended the affair, she said, was because her husband had grown suspicious of them.

Meanwhile, a trial-within-a-trial got under way last week wherein Sibusiso Mahlangu told the court that he was coerced and threatened by police to make a statement that he was behind the alleged murder.

He and his lawyers argued that the warning statement presented to court was inadmissible.

Mahlangu gave a statement to officer Lt-Col Philemon Mokgetle shortly after his arrest, but according to his counsel Nthabiseng Serabele, Mahlangu did not give the statement freely and voluntarily.

“[Mahlangu] was unduly influenced by Lt-Col Mokgetle. He was also threatened. He was intimidated and promised favours in return,” Serabele said.

Mokgetle briefly testified that he read Mahlangu his rights and informed him that he had the right to remain silent. He also stated that he was assigned to take the statement and had no prior information about the accused or his alleged crimes.

In the statement, Mahlangu said on January 1 2022, the day of the alleged murder, he was home alone as his wife, Lerato Mahlangu, had gone to Mpumalanga since she worked in the province.

While at home, he claimed in the statement that an intruder entered the house through the window, where a scuffle ensued and the intruder died. He further said he doused the unknown intruder with petrol before setting the body alight.

But he told the court that he was forced to make such statements by the first officer, Captain Phanuel Molefe.

Mahlangu told the court how he explained that he indeed returned to the house in Block HH but then left to take the car to the mechanic before leaving for Silverton.

“Once I got there, I stayed in Silverton for a few days and I left and went to Mpumalanga. Then [Mokgetle] said he was not interested in that story but more interested in the story I told Captain Molefe.”

He alleges that the officer stopped him and threatened that there would be consequences should he not stick to the initial statement. He said he complied as he heard from other offenders that officers who take statements at night torture inmates to co-operate.

“I then narrated the story that Captain Molefe told me to narrate ... What he said specifically is that: ‘You must tell me the story I came for, which is the story of Captain Molefe or there will be consequences.’ He did not mention my family, but he did say there will be consequences if I do not narrate that story,” he told the court.

He, however, could not tell the court how the officer threatened him, but said the officer was aggressive when speaking to him. Mokgetle then told him to rather state that the intruder entered through the door instead of the window as the door was not locked, he said.

He said he signed the statements but later realised that the handwriting had changed.

“I have a photographic memory. I remember the pages that he wrote... To me, the handwriting did not seem the same. I’m not an expert, but it did not seem the same,” he said.

Asked by judge Papi Mosopa whether he reported the false warning statement to his first legal representative during his bail hearing, Mahlangu said he informed his then lawyer, Nhlanhla Shongwe.

“I did inform [the lawyer] that there is a statement that they made me sign which is not my statement. My lawyer then said that the matter at that moment was not going to be attended in Soshanguve and [it will be cleared] with the [legal] representative once it goes to the high court.”

An irate Mosopa ordered the state advocate to contact Shongwe to testify on Mahlangu’s claims.

The matter is set to continue on Tuesday.