A couple was sentenced to life imprisonment for orchestrating the murder of their domestic worker to get insurance money. The Makhanda High Court in the Eastern Cape sentenced Zizipho Pani (34), her husband Siyathemba James (39), and her relative and hitman Sinethemba Pani (34) to life imprisonment.

The couple and their relatives had employed the victim, who was staying on the same street as them at Lingelihle Location in the district of Nxuba, to become their domestic worker. Eastern Cape NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said the mastermind, Zizipho, acquired funeral policies on the life of the victim with two banks in 2021. The policies would pay R200,000 upon the victim's death. "They promised the hitmen R50,000 after the murder," Tyali said. Their domestic worker was to be murdered at her boyfriend's home, where she stayed.

Tyali said that on the night of October 10, 2022, the hitmen went to the home of the victims, where they knocked and were let in as they were known to both of their targets. They then stabbed the couple with pangas and knives. One of the murderers, Masixole Sokoyi (19), who was a minor at the time, raped the helper, who was bleeding. The hitmen then left their victims, believing they were both dead. However, the woman managed to crawl to the neighbours and an ambulance was called, but her boyfriend was certified dead on the scene. "The victim was able to tell who her attackers were," Tyali said. He added that the assailants went on the run, and it was during that time that Zizipho and her husband took them to a sangoma in the neighbouring town of Cookhouse where they were rounded off by community members who wanted to assault them. They were rescued by the police and subsequently arrested.

Tyali said that one of their accomplices became a state witness after confessing to the murders and implicating the married couple. During the trial, State Advocate Sibusiso Mgenge led the evidence of the victim, who had to relive her ordeal in court. "The defense attempted to discredit her as they portrayed her as a drunkard and drug addict while putting the identities of attackers in dispute," he said. Tyali added that Judge Nozuko Mviko agreed with Advocate Mgenge's submission that insurance payout murders are becoming out of control not only in the Eastern Cape but in the country. "She noted that the courts had a duty to impose sentences that would deter other would-be perpetrators until legislation preventing people from taking insurance against people without their consent is enacted," said Tyali. Another accomplice, Sizwesethu Jonas (34) was also sentenced, along with the Pani, to life imprisonment terms plus 15 years for their roles in the murder of the boyfriend of a woman the couple had taken out life insurance against. Sokoyi was sentenced to an effective 25-year imprisonment for murder, attempted murder, and rape of the woman.