Daughter paid hitmen R 200K for the murder of her father

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A year later after being in police custody, a 28 years old daughter Mologadi Magdeline Mehlape, her aunt and three accomplice finally face the music for the gruesome murder of a senior government official.

The police in Limpopo received a call in December 2023, 28th, about a senior official in the provincial Department of Education, 56 years old Dr Malekutu Johannes Mehlape who was gunned down in the comfort of his own home several times by hitmen whom police later found out that they were given entry to the home by the daughter.

Both the daughter and aunt were denied bail when they first made their applications in March 2024 while Tshepho Ranoto (34), Hlologelo Mogotlane (34), and Sello Molongoane (49), who are accomplices in the same case have abandoned their bail applications.

Mehlape admitted to hiring a contract killer for R200,000, enlisting the help of several relatives. On the night of the murder, she unlocked the home’s gate and door, allowing the assailants to ambush her father in his bedroom.

He was shot multiple times and robbed of valuables, including his cellphone.She said she was influenced by claims from a traditional healer that her father had used “muthi” to cause her mother’s death.

She was convicted of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances under the Criminal Procedure Act and received a life sentence for murder and 15 years for robbery set to run concurrently.

This is as the co-accused, Tshepo Gabriel Ranoto, Hlologelo Klaas Mogotlane, Mahlodi Melida Mathole, and Michael Sello Molongoane are set to face trial separately in June 2025.

The presiding officer on the matter said although she showed remorse in her act, the damage was already done.