Ex-ANC councillor, co-accused get life for her husband's murder

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Cape Town – Former ANC councillor and murder mastermind Magdelene Titus and her co-accused, Justice Mooi, were on Tuesday sentenced in the Circuit High Court in Oudtshoorn to life imprisonment. The duo were convicted last year of the murder of Titus' husband, Preston Titus, in December 2017. The SANDF Staff Sergeant was bludgeoned to death at his house in the military base. They were also sentenced to three years' imprisonment for the obstruction of justice. The sentences will run concurrently. Last December, after being convicted of hiring hitmen to kill her husband, had asked the court to delay sentencing proceedings because she wants to prepare her two daughters for her being imprisoned. The court found the murder of Titus’ husband was premeditated and cold-blooded, the Cape Argus reported.

Titus fed her husband something to make him fall asleep, opened the back door for the hitmen and led them to her husband’s bedroom, where he was repeatedly stabbed and bludgeoned to death with a hammer.

Titus, who was out on R30 000 bail, also claimed there were exceptional circumstances that warranted extending her bail. She informed the court that she had been with diagnosed TB and her mother with cancer.

Prosecutor Christenus van der Vijver said: “There is nothing exceptional in the circumstances. It is ironic that the accused is now concerned about the well-being of their children. Why didn’t she think about that when she killed their father?”

Van der Vijver’s question to Titus, if she wanted the court to wait for her to be cured of her TB before being sentenced, evoked a cold “yes”.

Judge Nolwazi Boqwana, agreeing with the State, dismissed her application.

Both Titus and Mooi had requested probation officers and Correctional Services reports to be submitted for sentencing proceedings.

Cape Times