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Sukulwenkosi Dube  Plumtree Correspondent
A MAN from Bulilima district allegedly connived with his wife and their maid to murder his 97-year-old mother after a South African sangoma told him that the old woman was bewitching him.Nicholas Dube, 35, allegedly called his wife, Bathobile Moyo, 35, from Johannesburg where he works and instructed her to kill his mother, Sibuko Ndebele who lived with them at their homestead in Dumani Village, Ngwana area.

Acting on her husband’s orders, Bathobile, a mother of four, allegedly engaged her domestic worker, Nomalanga Moyo, 21, and promised her a beast in return for helping her to kill her mother-in-law.

The two women strangled Ndebele using a belt while she was asleep.

The trio appeared on initial remand yesterday before Plumtree magistrate, Gideon Ruvetsa facing murder charges.

They were each remanded in custody to June 9.

Nomalanga and Bathobile allegedly killed the elderly woman on May 18 and reported to the police that she had committed suicide.

A postmortem however, revealed that she had been strangled.

After being questioned by the police, Bathobile implicated her domestic worker and also revealed that her husband masterminded the evil deed.

Dube was arrested on Sunday while at his homestead in Bulilima when he returned home for his mother’s burial.

Prosecuting, Elisha Mazorodze said Dube called his wife and told her that his mother was the reason behind their misfortunes.

“Dube told his wife that he had visited a witch doctor in South Africa who informed him that the misfortunes that he and his family were experiencing were being caused by the old woman as she was bewitching him,” said Mazorodze.

“He also told his wife that his mother was the reason why his motor vehicle had been mysteriously stolen in South Africa.”

Dube instructed his wife to kill his mother and the woman sought her domestic worker’s assistance.

Mazorodze said on May 18, Bathobile and her maid waited until the old woman had gone to sleep in her bedroom hut.

“Bathobile and Nomalanga found the old woman asleep in her bedroom hut and Nomalanga grabbed both her hands in order to stop her from moving while Bathobile used a black belt which she had brought with her to strangle her mother-in-law to death,” said Mazorodze.

He said Bathobile then raised a false alarm and told their neighbours that her mother-in-law had committed suicide in her bedroom hut.

He said a report was made to the police for further investigations.

Mazorodze said the body was taken for postmortem and a pathologist ascertained that the old woman had died due to, strangulation, asphyxia and restriction of the neck vessel, leading to the arrest of the three suspects.