Cape Town – A 47-year-old woman from Mpumalanga who pleaded guilty to masterminding her husband’s murder to get her hands on his life insurance payout has been sentenced in the Mpumalanga High Court.
Phumaphi Gloria Gwebu was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her husband, 52-year-old Sipho Shadrack Dimba.
According to the provincial spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Monica Nyuswa, the couple was married and living in Msogwaba Trust with their children.
Gwebu pleaded guilty to the charges brought against her.
In her plea explanation to the court, Gwebu stated that she had taken out five insurance policies for her husband, one of which had to pay out R530 000 upon his death.
The court heard that she waited until the policies matured and then hired hitmen a few weeks before her husband’s murder.
On December 12, 2019, the hitmen came to the house during the night, as arranged with Gwebu, and carried out the task.
Upon their arrival, the hitmen went straight to the bedroom where Dimba was sleeping.
They grabbed him and strangled him in full view of his wife.
When they left the house the hitmen took Gimba’s body and threw him into the nearby river before fleeing.
The court heard that Gwebu had paid the hitmen R20 000 for the murder.
Gimba’s body was discovered two days after he was killed when a passer-by noticed a body in the river.
The person alerted Gimba’s family and the police were called to the scene.
Gwebu was only arrested a year after the murder after one of the hitmen confessed to the police and implicated in the crime.
Addressing the court, state advocate Eugene Mathebula submitted that murder was premeditated, brutal and triggered by greed.
The presiding judge could find no reason to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment.
IOL