The family of former Richmond Municipal Manager Sibusiso Sithole has made an emotional plea for the mastermind behind his 2017 assassination to be brought to justice, as convicted hitman Sabelo Phewa awaits his sentence.
Phewa appeared at the Durban High Court for a victim impact statement ahead of his sentencing on Tuesday. Sithole was shot dead in March 2017 while on his way to a council meeting where he was set to discuss fraud and corruption matters he had been investigating.
The court proceedings were marked by tension as Phewa, who also stands convicted for the murder of Amos Ngcobo and the attempted murder of police officers in a separate 2017 incident, chose to represent himself. He claimed that Legal Aid lawyers had pressured him to plead guilty.
While Phewa’s family pleaded for leniency, describing his arrest as a shock and citing his previous good standing in the community, Phewa himself maintained his innocence. He told the court that mitigation of sentence was for those who are guilty, a stance the state says demonstrates a complete lack of remorse.
This denial stands in stark contrast to the profound loss described by Sithole’s family. A family spokesperson delivered a powerful victim impact statement, detailing the ongoing devastation caused by Sithole’s murder.
“As a family, we were hoping that the accused can be charged with a life sentence, deservingly so because he has taken away a life that mattered,” the spokesperson said. “He wasn’t just a breadwinner who had financed so many kids at school. Some of them had to drop out of their school, left his own kids who also couldn’t be funded to go to school anymore. So many things just went wrong from that moment he left our lives.”
Colleagues and community members hailed Sibusiso Sithole as a diligent leader committed to rooting out corruption. A spokesperson from his former administration praised his tenure, stating, “Under his leadership, we had sound governance… we had stable financial management. There’s a lot that we have achieved. I can mention a number of community development projects that were implemented and were successful.”
The Durban High Court is expected to hand down Phewa’s sentence on Tuesday, September 23rd. For Sithole’s family, while one chapter closes with the hitman’s sentencing, their pursuit of justice continues as they seek answers about who ordered the killing that shattered their lives.
