By Zelda Venter
A self-confessed contract killer has told the Pretoria High Court how she paid two men R5 700 after they had strangled her long-time lover on her request.
Anieta Natasha Ferreira, 39, admitted in a statement that she had hired two men to kill her "abusive" lover.
The woman pleaded guilty to murder, together with the two hitmen, brothers Boston Thys Chilambo, 22, and George Koesyn, 20.
Chilambo said in his statement that he strangled Cyril Parkman last year.
He explained that when Parkman, who was asleep, woke up, he and his brother, George, strangled him with their hands.
They put the body in Parkman's car boot and drove off to dump it. Along the way the car hit a tree and they abandoned it and ran away. The body was discovered later.
The brothers said the promise of money had enticed them to commit the murder.
Ferreira, who had lived with Parkman for 11 years, said she could not handle his mental and physical abuse any more. "The first few years were happy, but after undergoing a hip replacement operation about seven years ago, the abuse started.
"Apart from being punched with his fists, my head being banged against the wall and floor, he also attempted to drown me by holding my head under the water in a bath."
On another occasion Parkman had tried to stab her with a knife. As she tried to fend off the attack, she broke a finger. Ferreira also told of an incident when Parkman tried to throttle her. This had been so severe that she had been unable to swallow.
She had to undergo reconstructive surgery in hospital.
She said she asked her domestic worker to find someone to kill him. The woman later said she had found two people who would kill him for R10 000. On the day of the murder, Ferreira said she let the brothers into the house and pointed out her lover to them. He was lying "in a drunken stupor" on a couch.
"I went to my room during the killing. They (her co-accused) came to me afterwards to say it had been done. I then gave them R5 700 and helped them load the body into the car."
Ferreira said she just wanted Parkman dead and she did not care how the men went about it. She said apart from feeling sorry for her lover, she also knew she could not get away because he would find her.
Chilambo said Ferreira promised them R90 000 for the killing. Koesyn said he was sorry for what he had done, but he could not resist the money.
After Acting Judge Bill Prinsloo found the three guilty of murder, Ferreira's defence counsel indicated that he wanted to hand in a probation officer's report before sentencing.