Daughter admits to plotting parents’ murder

A young Pretoria woman who admitted that she had roped in her boyfriend and his friend to help her murder her parents will probably only hear her fate in August.

Judge Neil Tuchten last week convicted Gwendolene Lekalakala (20) on two murder charges and one of robbery after she admitted that she had in December 2015 conspired with her boyfriend, Tapelo Molokomme (25), and his friend Kgangelo Rapelogo (25) to murder her mother and stepfather at their Capital Park home in Pretoria.

She also admitted to robbing her mother, Eva Mokotsi Beetge (49) and her stepfather, Piet Beetge (59) of a laptop, digital camera, cellphones, R500 in cash and their car.

Lekalakala said in a statement her boyfriend had first suggested that they should kill her parents, and she eventually agreed after having an argument with her mother on Christmas Day.

She bought poison in town after planning the murder with her two co-accused.

She went home the next day and apologised to her mother about their earlier fights, before putting poison in their drinks.

Her mother stayed behind in the lounge while her stepfather went to sleep. She locked up the dogs and switched off the electricity before letting her boyfriend and Rapelogo into the house. Rapelogo grabbed her mother around the neck and threw her down and her boyfriend held his hand over her mouth before both of them strangled her with a USB cable.

She made sure that her mother was dead before they dragged her body into another room.

They then went to her stepfather’s room, where Rapelogo hit her sleeping father with a brick in the face. When her father woke up, her boyfriend placed a charger cord around his neck and strangled him with Rapelogo’s help.

Her boyfriend removed her parents’ bodies from the scene in their car and later returned to pick her up. They withdrew money from her mother’s account and sold the goods they took at a second-hand store.

Judge Tuchten withdrew Lekalakala’s bail and postponed her trial until mid-August for a pre-sentencing report.

The trial of her boyfriend – who indicated that he also wanted to plead guilty – and Rapelogo was also postponed until August before a different judge.