Contract killings are not just something we watch on crime shows. Rather, this has become quite common in South Africa.
Getting rid of someone without getting your hands dirty has become the solution for many, and it doesn’t break the bank.
Ordering a hit on your spouse could cost as little as R2600, although high-profile and political hits can be quite expensive, according to crime studies.
Kiernan Forbes, known as AKA, was shot dead last year outside a restaurant in Durban. The hit was recorded by security cameras and went viral.
According to the latest annual police report, only one in five murder cases are solved in South Africa. Easy money, right?
You might want to reconsider; some of these hitmen do get caught.
Do you remember the murder of Anni Dewani?
She and her husband were on their honeymoon in South Africa when the taxi they were in was hijacked.
Three people involved in her murder pointed fingers at her husband, Shrien Dewani.
He was acquitted by a High Court in the Western Cape in December 2014. I have always wondered about that outcome.
Another case is that of Uitenhage teacher Jayde Panayiotou.
Her husband, Christopher Panayiotou, organised her murder. His excuse was that life was too much to handle, and his mistress was putting pressure on him to leave his wife. Sickening.
But it’s not only men who are behind these murders. Suretha Brits plead guilty to the murder of her husband.
She claimed that her husband was having an affair and that she was the victim of domestic abuse. She convinced Jacques van Vuuren to arrange her husband’s murder.
Let’s not forget about the infamous Rosemary Ndlovu, who was apprehended when a police officer went undercover as a hitman.
She wanted to hire this hitman to burn down her sister’s house while her sister and her five children were still inside.
All of these lives were to be lost for insurance money. Ndlovu was a police officer herself, and she was convicted of six murders.
Contract killing is a booming business in South Africa.
In 2022 alone, 141 assassinations were recorded in our country.
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