Durban – A KwaZulu Natal police officer who killed a friend and his girlfriend in a space of 24 hours has been jailed to 30 years.
Lindokuhle Sikhakhane, 27, a constable living in Pietermaritzburg, pleaded guilty on Monday to the murder of his fiancée Samkeliswe Mtshali, and his friend, Sandile Nene.
The murders took place on January 7 and 6 2022.
Sikhakhane pleaded guilty before Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Elsja Bezuidenhout to two counts of murder.
In his guilty plea handed to the court by attorney Bongani Mbatha, the accused said he had suspicions that Mtshali had been unfaithful.
So he had asked Nene, a security guard and long-time friend to take him, at a cost, to her home in Nqutu.
He said on January 6, he tried calling Mtshali but she did not answer her phone.
Mtshali had gone to her parents home because she was not well.
Sikhakhane said that he became worried when she didn’t answer her phone as it was getting late.
Before 11pm, Sikhakhane decided to call his friend Nene to ask him to take him in his car to Nquthu.
He said they agreed that he would pay R3 000 to hire the car and fill it up with petrol for the trip.
Sikhakhane said while en-route he tried calling his fiancée but she did not answer.
He then contacted her sister and informed her about what was happening.
Sikhakhane said he then received a text massage from his fiancée advising that she does not want to talk to him.
He said he became suspicious that she was cheating and told her he was on the way to her homestead.
Sikhakhane said she then contacted him and said she was not taking his calls because she was angry that he had impregnated her. But during the conversation, he heard a male voice in the background and his fiancée dropped the call.
He said this confirmed his suspicions that she was cheating and it angered him.
In addition Nene said that R3 000 was not enough to hire the car and that the accused needed to pay R2 000 more because of the distance to the homestead.
They both argued.
Sikhakhane said he was angry that Nene had deviated from the original agreement and asked him to stop the vehicle so that he could relieve himself on the side of the road.
He said when he walked to the driver’s side he noticed that Nene had produced a firearm and a fight ensued.
Sikhakhane said he shot Nene and drove off in his car.
During his drive to Nquthu, Sikhakhane said he decided to call a number he had discovered on his fiancée’s cellphone a year before this incident.
“The phone was answered by a male person who confirmed that he had been in love relationship with my fiancée and he had been with her on the night of the January 5, 2023.
“He also apologised to the accused for being in a love relationship with his fiancée as he was not even aware of that fact.”
Sikhakhane said he went to his fiancee’s home and confirmed that she had not slept there.
He said when he contacted her she denied cheating and they arranged to meet at Dundee the next day so that they could return to Pietermaritzburg together.
During the drive, the couple began fighting.
They decided to stop under a tree.
Sikhakhane said she denied cheating and when she refused to unlock her phone he shot and killed her.
He left her there and drove to his mother’s home in Ezimbubeni where he informed his mother of the shootings and then went to SAPS and confessed to the killings.
In a victim impact statement handed to the court by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Mbongeni Mthembu, Nene’s fiancée, Amanda Nontokozo Zondi said that she was now left to raise their 2-month-old baby alone.
“I can’t think straight. Words cannot express the anger, disappointment and loneliness that this whole ordeal has left me feeling.
“I am deeply damaged inside, thinking of the future plans, the wedding Sandile and I planned to have this year.”
IOL