Cape Town - Former ANC councillor Magdalene Titus, after being convicted of hiring hitmen to kill her husband, has asked the court to delay sentencing proceedings because she wants to prepare her two daughters for what is coming.
Her bizarre request was made in the circuit court in Oudtshoorn sitting as the Western Cape High court on Friday shorty after the conviction of Titus and her co-accused Justice Mooi.
The court found that the murder of Titus’ husband, SANDF staff sergeant Preston Titus, in December 2017 was premeditated and cold blooded. Titus fed her husband something to make him fall asleep, opened the back door for the hitmen, and led them to her husband’s bedroom where he was repeatedly stabbed and bludgeoned to death with a hammer.
Titus, who was out on R30000 bail, also claimed there were exceptional circumstances that warranted extending her bail. She informed the court that she had been with diagnosed TB and her mother with cancer.
Prosecutor Christenus van der Vijver said: “There is nothing exceptional in the circumstances. It is ironic that the accused is now concerned about the wellbeing of their children. Why didn’t she think about that when she killed their father?”
Van der Vijver’s question to Titus, if she wanted the court to wait for her to be cured of her TB before being sentenced, evoked a cold “yes”.
“This is a slap in the face of the Department of Correctional Services to say that they cannot take care of the accused while she is incarcerated. She is not going to lose the R30000 bail. As soon as it is cancelled it is going to be paid back into her account and her children will benefit from it,” he said.
Judge Nolwazi Boqwana, agreeing with the State, dismissed her application. Both Titus and Mooi have requested probation officers and Correctional Services reports to be submitted for sentencing proceedings.