Teen mastermind behind family murder faces sentencing
Hendrik Hancke
Pretoria High Court to weigh tough vs. lenient sentence for woman behind family’s murder eight years ago. At just 15, Onthatile Sebati masterminded the brutal December 2016 slaying of her entire family—including her father, a police officer, her mother, a nurse, her pregnant sister, and her toddler brother—at their Mmakau home near Brits, North-West.
Sebati used her insurance payout to pay cousins Tumelo and Kagiso Mokone R100,000 for their role in the murders. On December 17, 2021, Sebati turned herself in and confessed, resulting in the arrests of Tumelo and Kagiso the following day.
In January, the Pretoria High Court convicted Sebati and her accomplices on multiple charges, including four counts of murder, theft, armed robbery, illegal firearm possession, and possession of ammunition.
After hearing arguments from the defense and the state, their sentencing was handed down Tuesday afternoon. The state revealed that Sebati gave her father’s gun to her cousins the night before the murders. She allegedly let them into the house, where they shot her entire family. Before they fled, she instructed them to shoot her in the thigh to stage her innocence.
At just 15, Sebati orchestrated the crime with her cousins, Tumelo and Kagiso Mokone, for which she later paid them R100,000 from her insurance windfall.
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