Durban - Sibusiso Mpungose’s guilty plea would not bring back the children he killed, a relative has said.
Mpungose, the Pinetown father who murdered his three children and stepdaughter last month, pleaded guilty to the murders in the Pietermaritzburg High Court last week.
Mpungose’s children, Kuhlekonke 4, Khwezi, 6, and Siphesihle,10, were found hanged in their family home on September 3, while his 16-year-old stepdaughter, Ayakha Jiyane, was strangled with a bathrobe belt and found in the bush in Padfield Park, Pinetown.
He was arrested for the children’s murder two days later. Ayakha’s uncle, Skhumbuzo Jiyane, said the family would be in court on October 30 when Mpungose was sentenced.
“There is not much else we can say now. We look forward to going to court for the sentencing. The most painful part of all this is that the guilty plea will not bring back the children,” he said.
According to Mpungose’s guilty plea, he went in a hired taxi to pick up his children from their respective schools.
Once at home he sent Siphesihle to a nearby shop while he tied the hands of Kuhlekonke and Khwezi with clear tape and covered their mouths with the tape before covering their faces with clothes.
He did the same to Siphesihle when he returned before placing ropes around the children’s necks. He hanged Siphesihle first, from the burglar guard of the couple’s bedroom.
He then hanged Kuhlekonke inside a wardrobe in the same room where he had hanged Khwezi.
“Within a few minutes I noticed they had all died. I panicked and left and locked the house,” he said.
Mpungose said he went to Ayakha’s school, where the two boarded a taxi. Along the way he told her they needed to meet her mother in town.
“I then lured her to a secluded place. She walked ahead and I followed her. I took out the rope I had in my possession and strangled her... She fought hard to free herself, but I overpowered her,” he said.
Mpungose said problems between himself and his wife began in May when he saw a picture of Ayakha with her father, Vusi, on his wife’s phone.
Later he read WhatsApp messages on his wife’s phone that led him to conclude they were having an affair.
When he confronted his wife and Ayakha’s father about having an affair, they both denied it.
In August his wife suggested they divorce, and he eventually agreed.
A few days after receiving the divorce summons, he had an argument with his wife. She told him she had had enough and that the divorce would be finalised.
“This left me devastated. I intended consulting with my family doctor to refer me to a psychologist, but unfortunately my doctor was on holiday. I decided to end my life and that of my children,” he said.