Newcastle man seeking revenge kills four members of his own family

Asked if he feels any guilt about having murdered four members of his own family, including the uncle who raised him after his parents died and the cousins who took him as a brother …Mthunzi Sithebe, answers, “No.”

Despite the overwhelming volume of evidence which led to his conviction in the Madadeni High Court on Friday, June 21, Mthunzi still insists he is innocent.

Instead of acknowledging what he did, showing remorse and pleading with the court for a lenient sentence, Mthunzi turns to his aunt, Joyce Motha, and says, “I want to tell my aunt, I still take her as a mother and I still love her.”

Joyce weeps quietly in public gallery. The remaining members of her family try to comfort her but the unbearable emotional pain and psychological trauma she has had to endure as Mthunzi took the life of one family member after another, is more than she can bear.

Mthunzi’s parents were killed violently in an incident of ‘mob justice’ when Mthunzi was just 10-years old. At first he went to live with his grandmother who struggled to provide for him on the social grant which was her only source of income.

To ease the financial burden on Mthunzi’s grandmother, Joyce and her husband, Simphiwe Lucas Motha (Mthunzi’s uncle), took Mthunzi in.

The couple welcomed Mthunzi into their home on Kiel-Kiel Farm in Dannhauser and raised him as one of their own.

“Little did I know that Mthunzi would grow up and make me into a widow, or that Mthunzi would kill my children. He destroyed my household. He took away everything from us. I am a woman living with no hope,” said Joyce in a victim impact statement, which was read into the court record by state prosecutor, Senior Advocate Nkonzo Mlotshwa.

“My home felt like a graveyard. I lived in constant fear of when Mthunzi would come back and kill all of us. If Mthunzi wasn’t caught, I, myself, would be dead as well as my remaining children. The fear of a child I took to be my own, was too much.”

Joyce’s nightmare began in September 2017.

On September 17, 2017, Mthunzi ambushed his uncle, Simphiwe Motha, at an area in Osizweni Township (Newcastle) known as ‘Nine Mile’. At the time, Simphiwe and his neighbour, Nkosinathi Ngubo, were returning home from Newcastle in Ngubo’s vehicle.

When Simphiwe, who was driving Ngubo’s vehicle, stopped at the Nine Mile intersection, Mthunzi opened fire on the vehicle. Simphiwe was rushed to the Madadeni Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. He succumbed to his injuries in the early hours of the next morning.

Ngubo was fortunate to survive the incident with no injuries.

On November 1, 2021, Mthunzi claimed his second victim. Joyce and Simphiwe’s daughter, Zanele Motha, was also shot in the head.

Zanele and her cousin, Sifiso Sithole, were socialising at Philisa Tavern that evening when Mthunzi, his co-accused, Sifiso Innocent Phakati, and Jabulani Sikhakhane entered the tavern and opened fire, fatally wounding Zanele.

Sifiso Sithole survived the incident despite sustaining gunshot wounds to the hand and leg.

Zanele’s brother, Bonginkosi Motha, gave chase as Mthunzi, Jabulani and Sifiso Phakati fled the scene. However, Bonginkosi was forced to give up the pursuit of his sister’s killers when he came under fire as well.

Less than three weeks later, on November 17, 2021, Bonginkosi suffered the same fate as his sister and father.

Bonginkosi enlisted the help of Jabulani Sikhakhane to try and track down Mthunzi. However, Sikhakhane betrayed Bonginkosi and, instead, conspired with Mthunzi to kill Bonginkosi.

On the evening of November 17, 2021, Sikhakhane lured Bonginkosi away from his house with a series of phonecalls. Bonginkosi drove out with his cousin, Phakamani Sithole, to meet Sikhakhane at an agreed upon location.

However, when Bonginkosi and Phakamani reached their destination they were met with deluge of bullets. Both were killed and their cellphones were stolen.

The cellphones were recovered six days later, November 23, 2021, in a room that Mthunzi was renting in Tembisa (Gauteng).

Last week Friday, Mthunzi Sithebe (39) was found guilty of four counts of murder, for the murders of Simphiwe Motha, Zanele Motha, Bonginkosi Motha and Phakamani Sithole, two counts of attempted murder, for Nkosinathi Ngubo and Sifiso Sithole, and one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances for the theft of the cellphones.

His co-accused, Sifiso Phakati (33), was found guilty of one count of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Phakati, a Tembisa based taxi-driver whose only connection to the Motha and Sithole families was his friendship with Mthunzi, said, in court, that he had been drinking alcohol on the day Zanele was killed and that this played a role in how events unfolded.

Phakati added that he, himself, had absolutely no personal issues with the Motha and Sithole families.

Members of the Motha family, who asked not to be named, confided in the Northern Natal News that Mthunzi believed his aunt and uncle practiced witchcraft and had caused his parents’ death through this practice.

“Mthunzi decided to avenge his parents’ death by killing members of the Motha and Sithole families,” explained a member of the Motha family.

“It shows how dangerous believing in false superstitions can be. Our family still hasn’t healed from this unbearable loss …maybe with time, but we are grateful that justice has been done. We couldn’t be happier with how this case was handled by the prosecutor, Snr Adv Mlotshwa, and by the investigating officer, Sergeant Thulani Khumalo, and his team at the Amajuba District Office, especially Officers Kunene, Mgabhi and Dube. They truly left no stones unturned in their pursuit of justice. We, as the Motha family, highly appreciate the effort they put into the case.”

Judge SB Mngadi sentenced Mthunzi to four terms of life imprisonment for each of the four murders, two terms of 10 years’ imprisonment for each of the attempted murders and 12 months’ imprisonment for the robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Sifiso Phakathi was handed a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of Zanele Motha, and 10 years’ imprisonment for the attempted murder of Sifiso Sithole.

“It is something that, try as Joyce did, cannot be adequately described in words,” said Mngadi. “However, we punish the offender for the person who was killed. In this case, the offender decided the fate of his victims, just like when you decide to take your goat to the slaughter. If you can take other people as your own property and decide the fate of their lives, the court will deal with you. That is what society expects of the court.”

“Mthunzi planned and executed the killing of his own uncle who had been good to him for many years, who took him in, educated him and grew him into a man. In essence, what he did is the same as killing his own father. All the deceased were murdered in a cruel and ugly manner, with no reflection by Mthunzi that these were members of his own family,” Mngadi concluded.

The news provided to you in this link has been investigated and compiled by the editorial staff of the Newcastle Advertiser, a sold newspaper distributed in the Newcastle area. Please follow us on Youtube and feel free to like, comment, and subscribe. For more local news, visit our webpage, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and request an add on our WhatsApp (082 874 5550).