News24.com | Couple accused of faking husband's death in a house fire charged with murder

Lerato and Sibusiso Mahlangu.

• A lawyer representing a couple accused of killing a man and then faking the husband's death before falsely claiming funds from insurance policies has withdrawn from the case.
• The court has now given Lerato Mahlangu and her husband Vincent Sibusiso Mahlangu time to find a new lawyer.
• The man they are accused of killing is believed to be Sibusiso Sithebe - Lerato’s ex-lover and father of her daughter.

A Tshwane couple accused of a crime with similarities to the Thabo Bester escape plot, appeared in court on charges of premeditated murder, fraud and defeating the ends of justice after allegedly faking the husband's death.

Vincent Sibusiso Mahlangu and his wife, Lerato, are accused of an elaborate murder plot to fake Mahlangu's death and then falsely claim from insurance policies.

The two appeared in a packed Soshanguve Magistrate's Court on Thursday where their lawyer, Nkumuke Ntshudisane, announced that she would no longer be representing the couple. 

The matter was postponed to allow the pair to find and consult with a new lawyer.

Prosecutor Katlego Matsena told Magistrate B Swart that the Mahlangus faced a Schedule 6 offence.  

Lerato, 32, and Mahlangu, 33, are alleged to have killed and burned a man who is believed to be Lerato's ex-boyfriend, Sibusiso Sithebe, 32, in their RDP house in Soshanguve in 2022.

READ | A 'dead' Tshwane man was caught in a stolen car. Police expect to find his wife's ex in his grave

It is also alleged that Lerato claimed from her husband’s insurance policies while he was in fact alive.  

Mahlangu was later arrested driving a VW Polo reportedly stolen in Hammanskraal.

During his arrest, Mahlangu didn't want the police to take his fingerprints, telling the police that the system would reveal he was a dead man, News24 was told.

Regional National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said: "The matter was initially set for a bail application. However, Ntshudisane was not ready. The matter was postponed to 18 May for new lawyers to come on record and it will probably proceed with the bail application."

She said that because it was a Schedule 6 offence the onus was on the couple to convince the court to grant them bail.

"The State will be opposing their bail application," said Mahanjana, who added that the State had a strong case against the couple.

"The process of exhuming the body of the deceased has not started. We are in the process of positively identifying the body through DNA evidence. We need to know who exactly died in that fire," she said.