Lindi Mangaliso

Case record: Lindi Mangaliso

Background

Lindi Mangaliso (née Qunta) was the eldest of five children. She grew up surrounded by love. Her mother was a member of the Fingo tribe and related to the Dhlaminis and the Swazi royal family, and held a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science. Her late father was a graduate of Fort Hare University and held both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees. He had been the principal of Langa High School, Cape Town, for more than twenty years and was highly respected in the community.

After matriculating from Langa High School, Lindi qualified as a nurse in Port Elizabeth. In 1972, while still a student nurse, she married Victor Mangaliso, who at the time worked in a bottle store. Mr and Mrs Qunta initially objected to the match because Victor’s prospects were poor, with his father working as a cook in a hospital and his mother being an unemployed domestic worker, but Lindi talked them round.

After her marriage, she moved into a house with her in-laws in Guguletu. After completing her training, Lindi obtained a nursing post at Groote Schuur Hospital. While still a nursing sister, she ventured into business for herself using her own capital and some money her mother had given her. She bought a butchery in Langa, followed by a second butchery, and then acquired the franchise for a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Guguletu, Cape Town. She eventually decided to go into business full-time. During this period, her husband worked for his wife; earlier he had been a representative for Nestle.

Lindi’s mother said that Lindi was the one with the ideas and business acumen and that Victor was merely a glorified bookkeeper. She said that as the business prospered, the couple bought a home in the name of his mother because they wanted something more prestigious, and later bought their own home. She said they lived very well.

Throughout the marriage, Mr and Mrs Qunta remained concerned about their daughter’s strong personality, which aroused violent reactions in her husband. Victor took a succession of girlfriends, drank heavily, and often became violent. Mrs Qunta described incidents including Lindi calling at 2 a.m. to ask for her to be fetched, and Lindi trying to hide black eyes with sunglasses. At other times Lindi phoned and said that Victor was assaulting her, leading Mrs Qunta to arrange for her son to take her to Lindi’s home. Mrs Qunta said she talked to Victor and felt it was useless because he was drunk; when he was sober, he was very nice and used to say, “Yes, Mama". Mrs Qunta said it was very humiliating for Lindi and things did not improve over the years.

After putting up with her husband’s womanising, drinking, and assaults for twelve years, Lindi felt angry and humiliated. She said she had made a number of attempts to save the marriage, but that her life became a misery. In the latter half of 1984, she decided to murder her husband.

The offence

Lindi Mangaliso turned for help to one of her employees, Washington “Manyosi” Nxawe, who was working in one of her butcheries. Although Nxawe had only been in Mrs Mangaliso’s employ for about two months, she confided in him. Nxawe said: “She told me that she no longer loved her husband as he was playing the fool with her.” He said she asked him “to get people to beat him up.” Nxawe was initially skeptical, but after Mrs Mangaliso had spoken to him three times, he realised how serious she was, and he knew she was prepared to pay “plenty of money” to have her husband done away with.

Eventually, Nxawe approached another man, Sipo Peter. One night, about a month or so after Mrs Mangaliso first approached him, Nxawe arranged a meeting between Mrs Mangaliso, Peter, and another man named Mbuzeli Shelini. At the meeting, Mrs Mangaliso told the two men that she wanted them to attack her husband.

On that night, Victor returned home very late, by which time the two men had gone. Mrs Mangaliso remarked afterwards: “My husband is a very lucky man.”

A little while later, Mrs Mangaliso asked Nxawe if Peter could be trusted. Nxawe said: “I told Lindi that Sipo could be trusted.” He added: “He was a brave man and would not divulge secrets as he was not a talkative man.”

A few days before the murder, the Mangaliso marriage faced another crisis. Lindi discovered that her husband had yet another girlfriend, a schoolgirl, and confronted him about it. Victor resented the way she had treated the affair. He initially denied everything but eventually owned up and apologised. Lindi regarded it as the final straw.

On 15 December, she phoned Nxawe: “Sipo and his friend must do the job," and she added: “Beat him up, paralyse or kill him!”

The following night, at about 2 a.m., Victor was called out of the house to investigate a burglar alarm that had gone off for the second time that night in one of the butcheries. It was a false alarm but worsened his mood. Victor angrily telephoned his wife. She said: “He said I had to get the hell out of the house when he got home.” Mrs Mangaliso thought she was going to be beaten again when her husband returned home.

In a state close to panic, she telephoned Nxawe: “Victor has phoned me,” she said. “Get those guys you said you would get.” Nxawe promised to do so but did not call back. She phoned again, wanting to know where the men were. Nxawe explained he had been unable to get hold of them, and then ordered her: “Go and find them he ordered.”

Shortly afterwards, Nxawe, Peter, and Shelini drove up to the house. Nxawe hooted twice and Mrs Mangaliso came to the door and let Peter and Shelini into the house. Nxawe drove off. One of the men carried a knife and Mrs Mangaliso gave one of her own knives to the other. She showed them the main bedroom, the bathroom, and where about R2 000 was hidden before taking them to the children’s room, where they hid.

Victor got back to the house. He said: “I am not in the mood to beat you otherwise I would have beaten the daylights out of you,” and he made himself a snack and went to bed. After he retired, the two men crept into the bedroom. Lindi lay awake in the darkness waiting for the two men to appear. She said: “The bedroom door opened after a while,” and “I ran out of the room and was aware of two people entering the bedroom. I ran to the bathroom. I heard my husband saying, 'What do you want?’” She then described the question: “Where is the money?” one of the men replied.

Someone locked the bathroom door from the outside. She heard sounds of a struggle and climbed through the bathroom window. She alerted the servants and ran to a neighbour’s house. Hours later, she learnt her husband was dead.

Victor Mangaliso, described as a wealthy Guguletu businessman, was stabbed to death in his Malungo Park home on the night of 16 December 1984.

At the time of his death, his life was insured for almost R500 000. In the event of him being permanently disabled or paralysed, the value of the insurance policies increased to R1,2 million. It later emerged that the two men involved in the killing were paid between R500 and R800 to carry out the murder by Lindi Mangaliso.

Investigation

At first, police suspected the murder had been the work of an ANC hit-squad. The narrative included that a few months earlier attempts had been made to extort money from prominent black leaders and death threats had been issued. At the time, Mrs Mangaliso claimed that neither she nor her husband were “interested in township or national politics”.

As the investigation continued, anomalies emerged. In her first statement, Mrs Mangaliso claimed she had been asleep next to her husband when the intruders entered the bedroom, yet there was no blood on her nightclothes. The police also noted she could not explain why the robbers attacked and brutally murdered her husband while leaving her untouched. The police also said her account of how she escaped from the bathroom and raised the alarm did not stand up to close examination.

Eventually, police arrested Nxawe. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. In exchange for immunity from prosecution, Nxawe later turned State’s evidence and named his accomplices.

The investigating officer was Captain Leonard Knipe, of the Peninsula Murder and Robbery Squad. During the trial that followed, he remarked: “Never in my experience as a policeman has there been a case which has gripped the imagination of the black community like this one.”

Arrest

Washington “Manyosi” Nxawe was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. He later turned State’s evidence and named his accomplices in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Trial

The trial of Lindi Mangaliso, Sipo Peter, and Mbuzeli Shelini began at the Cape Town Supreme Court on 18 March 1986. All three accused pleaded not guilty.

A lengthy trial followed, delayed by interruptions and the fact that two of the accused changed counsel. On 24 November 1986, the court found Mangaliso, Sipo Peter, and Shelini guilty of murder.

In his four-hour summing-up, Mr Justice de Kock said that the total evidence showed that Mangaliso “planned and arranged the attack on Mr Mangaliso with the assistance of Washington 'Manyosi" Nxawe and admitted the assailants to the house intending them to attack and kill her husband,” and “at least stood by” while her husband was attacked. The court rejected Shelini’s claim that he was an innocent party because he remained standing in the passage while Peter stabbed Mr Mangoliso. It also rejected Peter’s evidence that he was ill in bed on the night of the killing.

The court accepted as admissible evidence despite later claims of duress: Peter’s earlier statement in which he admitted that he and Shelini were taken to the Mangaliso’s house where they fought with and killed Mr Mangaliso.

Referring to a letter allegedly written in Pollsmoor prison by Shelini, where he was remanded during the trial, Mr Justice de Kock said it was clear from the contents that Shelini admitted he took part in the crime “and that he fears the consequences that will follow”.

Sipo Peter and Mbuzeli Shelini were sentenced to hang because they had “deliberately and willingly taken part in this heinous crime for financial gain.”

On occasion, Mrs Winnie Mandela, described as a bosom friend of Lindi Mangaliso, attended the trial. As she was leaving the court on 4 December, she was pelted with softdrink cans, orange peel, and sand by a large, angry crowd. One protester maintained: “Winnie Mandela is the wife of our leader,” and “She should not be supporting Lindi Mangaliso!” Mrs Mandela later blamed “the system” for stage-managing the demonstration against her.

Sentencing

Sentence was passed on 12 December 1986. Lindi Mangaliso was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her husband’s “abuse, betrayal and humiliation” were seen as extenuating circumstances. Peter and Shelini were condemned to hang because they had “deliberately and willingly taken part in this heinous crime for financial gain”.

The record also indicated that Lindi Mangaliso was incarcerated in Polismoor prison.

Appeals

On 4 March 1989, Shelini and Peter were reprieved and had their death sentences commuted to 20 years imprisonment by the Acting State President, Mr Chris Heunis.

Other details

Letter found in Shelini’s cell

In August 1985, an anonymous letter addressed to “Lean” was found in the cell Shelini was being held in along with some other men. The letter said:

'If you can get me out of this place I really don't know what I will do for you. Please Dear try all you can. Those people must die before the 13th. and I will pay. Also the court books must be missing. If your brother can kill these people I will be a free man. Even my cell-mate with this woman they are throwing everything at me. Here are the names of these people: Nxawe, Julius Tshaka , Leonard Knipe (he is a white man).'

A handwriting expert identified Mbuzeli Shelini as the author of the letter. Julius Tshaka was reputedly in the house when the murder took place. Shelini implicated him in the crime but Tshaka was not charged.

After the trial

Following the trial, Lindi Mangaliso’s three children went to live with their maternal grandmother, Mrs Grace Qunta. Timo Bezuidenhoud, who was described as chief administrator of Cape Town’s black townships for many years and a friend of Mrs Mangaliso, was appointed curator responsible for the children’s portion of their father’s estate.

The record also contained references to a mitigation hearing for Lindi Mangaliso in which Winnie Mandela was attacked by an angry crowd outside the Cape Town Supreme Court, with an accompanying statement that her friendship with Mangaliso touched off the attack.

Names and roles mentioned

Victor Mangaliso was the victim. Washington “Manyosi” Nxawe was an employee and later the State’s key witness after immunity from prosecution. Sipo Peter and Solomon Mbuzeli Shelini were paid assassins. Captain Leonard Knipe was the investigating officer. Mr Justice de Kock delivered the summing-up. Mrs Winnie Mandela attended the trial and was pelted by a crowd on 4 December. Mrs Grace Qunta was the children’s maternal grandmother. Timo Bezuidenhoud was appointed curator. Mr Chris Heunis was Acting State President who commuted death sentences on 4 March 1989.