MBOMBELA – Valencia Nonhlanhla Mthunywa will spend 20 years in prison after she was convicted and sentenced in the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court today.
Her mother Wanter Jabulile Dlamini’s body was found dumped at a local dumping area near an abattoir in Barberton in January 2020. She was assaulted, raped, and strangled until she died.
Mthunywa’s sentencing comes after she entered into a plea sentence agreement with the state. The accused was charged along with her sister, Bathabile Penelope Mthunywa, Nombuso Philadelphia Ndwandwa and Steen Silo Mashakeng.
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It is reported that Dlamini was having drinks with some of the accused when her beer was poisoned. The following day, Valencia invited her mother over to her boyfriend’s house and conspired to kill her to claim an R80 000 insurance policy signed up under Ndwandwa in 2019.
A few days later, a claim from Old Mutual was received from the deceased daughters. The police investigations led to the arrest of the accused. In court one accused pleaded guilty which resulted in the separation of trials. The case against the remaining accused was postponed to for 18 November to 6 December 2024 for the new presiding officer and trial.
The court further handed her a five-year direct imprisonment sentence for attempted murder and three years for defeating the ends of justice. It further ordered the sentences imposed on attempted murder and defeating the ends of justice to run concurrently with the sentence imposed on murder. Mthunywa was also declared unfit to possess a firearm in terms of the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000.
