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A brother’s betrayal ends in life sentence in Gauteng
A crime rooted in family trust
What should have been a place of safety became the setting for one of Gauteng’s most chilling family crimes. The Pretoria North Magistrates’ Court has sentenced 40-year-old Dineo Cambridge Baloyi to life imprisonment for the murder of his younger brother, Lethabo Baloyi, a killing driven by jealousy and a bitter inheritance dispute.
The case has struck a nerve across Gauteng, not only for its brutality but also for how deeply it cut into the fabric of a single family. At the centre of it was a secret discovered in a bedroom, a will that changed everything.
A will that sparked a deadly plan
At the time of his death, 27-year-old Lethabo Baloyi was a serving member of the South African National Defence Force and lived at the barracks. His older brother stayed with their mother in Soshanguve. She too worked for the SANDF and was often deployed outside South Africa.
During one of those deployments, Baloyi went into his mother’s bedroom and found her last will and testament. The document revealed that he was not a beneficiary and that his younger brother would inherit. According to the National Prosecuting Authority, Baloyi shared the discovery with his girlfriend, and together they began plotting Lethabo’s murder.
It was a calculated betrayal that prosecutors later described as fuelled by greed rather than desperation.
Poison, strangulation, and a staged crash
On 30 May 2018, the brothers were brought together under the pretence of a casual visit. Baloyi and his girlfriend invited Lethabo to their mother’s home to socialise. While there, they secretly poisoned his drink.
Once he lost consciousness, the pair strangled him to death. In an attempt to conceal the murder, they placed his body in his vehicle and deliberately crashed it along the R80 Mabopane Highway, hoping it would be seen as a tragic accident.
For years, the truth remained buried beneath that staged wreck.
Years on the run and an unexpected confession
After the killing, Baloyi’s girlfriend disappeared and remains untraced. Baloyi himself fled to Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, where he was later arrested in connection with an unrelated kidnapping case involving another partner and her child.
In September 2024, while in custody, Baloyi fell ill and was hospitalised. It was there that the case took an unexpected turn. He contacted his uncle and confessed to killing his brother. Investigators travelled to Mpumalanga, where Baloyi made a formal confession before a magistrate and was arrested for the murder on 9 September 2024.
Court rejects plea for leniency
In court, Baloyi pleaded guilty and asked for a lesser sentence, citing his children as dependents. The regional prosecutor opposed any deviation from the prescribed minimum sentence, arguing that the crime was planned, cruel, and driven by jealousy and greed.
The court agreed. Along with life imprisonment for murder, Baloyi was sentenced to an additional five years for conspiracy to commit murder and was declared unfit to possess a firearm.
A wider conversation in Gauteng
The case has sparked renewed conversation on social media about inheritance disputes and family violence, particularly in households where financial pressure and unresolved resentment simmer quietly for years. Many have expressed shock at how a legal document, meant to provide clarity and security, became the trigger for such violence.
For Gauteng families, the story is a grim reminder that unresolved conflict and secrecy can have devastating consequences. For the Baloyi family, it marks the end of a long search for truth, but one that came at an unimaginable cost.
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Source: IOL
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