Confession of a ‘teenage killer’ states assaults and insults made her do it

The 22-year-old woman who allegedly had her entire family murdered when she was just 15 has gone into detail about how she had drugged the family hours before the murder. 

This was contained in a confession statement that TimesLIVE Premium has seen as the case against the North West woman, Onthatile Sebati, continues. In the two-and-a-half page statement, Sebati said she had ordered the hit on her family because they treated her badly.

“Before the incident or the murder of my family, I was having a problem of the abusive manner of my family where I was always assaulted and insulted,” she said. 

Onthatile is accused of paying cousins Tumelo and Kagiso Mokone about R100,000 to kill her mother, father, her 19-year-old pregnant sister as well as her six-year-old brother  at their Mmakau home in December 2016.

Her father was police constable Solomon Lucky Sebati aged 42. Her mother was 40-year-old Mmatshepo, while her pregnant sister was named as Tshegofatso, and the little boy who was also murdered was Quinton.

All of them were shot dead with the father’s service pistol. 

Onthatile and the two men are facing four counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition and theft.

In the confession, dated  December 2021, Sebati alleged the only people she was able to confide in about her troubles at home were her two co-accused.

“We all decided on a plan to kill them all,” said her confession statement.

“First we decided to use the sleeping tablets which I poured into their food that I prepared on December 5 2016. Then on the December 6 2016, during the day — before the murder ... I was communicating with Tumelo and Kagiso through WhatsApp that they must come collect the firearm belonging to my father,” she said. 

The men came, took the firearm and returned later that night, she said. 

“At about 11pm, Kagiso and Tumelo came, I gave Tumelo the car key to the Chrysler to reverse it and Kagiso and myself went into the house. I showed him where my father is, then he shot him, and where my mother is, and my sister who was pregnant came out to see what was happening. Kagiso also shot them dead,” she said.

“He also shot my little sister, the little one,” said Onthatile, seemingly referring to her brother, Quinton. 

This court case has been going on for years and now it is opening the wounds. It's hurting. Initially, two guys were arrested and we came here for trial and they were acquitted. It was very disturbing because then we were thinking the police didn’t do their job right.

—  Relative Pieter Ratlhagane

Onthatile said she told Kagiso to also shoot her. He shot at her on her right thigh.

According to the confession, after the two drove away, Onthatile told the neighbours that two suspects had shot her family. The confession further states that Kagiso informed her that he had thrown the firearm in a dam.

Onthatile, however, later told the court that she did not recall making the confession, but after a trial-within-a-trial, her confession was admitted as evidence. 

Meanwhile, the National Prosecution Authority said fingerprints found on the car family’s car, which was used as a getaway car, were those of the Mokone cousins. 

During their bail application, the investigating officer testified that the three accused submitted corroborating confession statements stating the role they each played on the night Sebati’s family was killed.

Continuing with cross-examination on Wednesday, state prosecutor advocate Eric Sihlangu put it to Onthatile that the money she had paid to one of the cousins was for the services rendered for the murder of her family.

She denied this. She claimed the money was funds for a start-up business selling car parts.

When probed further on whether she received her investment funds back, she said she had only received R30,000 back but didn’t have proof to show that she did receive the money.

Sihlangu argued that Onthatile did not have proof as she had never received any money and that there was no business.

Before the arrest of the Mokone cousins, two other men had been arrested in connection with the murder of the family. The two had been taken for a “pointing out” session at the Sebati home where they gave details of how the crime unfolded. 

But as the matter went to court, they revealed they had been assaulted into confession and coached on what to say. 

The pair were acquitted after a trial. 

Speaking outside court, Onthatile’s uncle Donald Brown said the family was devastated when her niece confessed to organising the murder.

“It was a shock. We were shocked. All I can say is let the law take its course so that we can get closure. We decided that anything — the decision of the court — is OK. The only thing we need is to get healing and closure,” he said.

Another of Onthatile’s relatives, Pieter Ratlhagane, said the family was hurt.

“This court case has been going on for years and now it is opening the wounds. It’s hurting. Initially, two guys were arrested, and we came here for trial and they were acquitted. It was very disturbing because then we were thinking the police didn’t do their job right,” he said.

He said they couldn’t believe the new developments in the case.

“It’s shocking. We couldn’t believe it. It was quite disturbing to think that our child, whom we thought was a survivor, is the one who committed the crime. How can she do that? We are a bit confused now. Since she was arrested we have never had time to sit down with her to ask her what the motive was. We hoped she would have said it in court. We thought she would come to court, admit and explain why she did it, but up to now no,” said Ratlhagane.

Recalling the first court appearance where two suspects had initially been arrested, Ratlhagane said they thought they had the right suspect as Onthatile had “put on a show”.

“What I can tell you is that she is very dramatic. I remember the day that we went to court when we saw those two guys who [we thought had] killed our family — the way she was performing in court. She was crying and wanted to grab these two guys, knowing that they are not the ones who did that. She was jumping. The police even had to come and help. We were all crying, saying, 'look what you have done to our daughter.' Little did we know that she was the one,” he said.

Onthatile’s aunt Japhtaline Sebati said she was raised as a good child as the father was a pastor.

“The only problem started after this [murder] is where we noticed that she started to be arrogant. We were sensitive because we thought she was a victim. We would be lenient to her because we thought we couldn’t be harsh on her since she was a victim,” she said.

Japhtaline believes Onthatile is guilty

“She stayed with me after this. The behaviour of getting out at night ... I could see that there was a problem of dagga. I took her for counselling. I even took her to Sanca in Soshanguve. She just stopped going when they were about to test her if she was still on drugs,” Japhtaline said.

She said she didn’t know if Onthatile was on drugs before the incident.

Meanwhile, the family has revealed that when Onthatile turned 18, she managed to claim her parents’ money. “She even sold her father’s business equipment,” said Japhtaline. 

Ratlhagane believes that the court has the right people. “Because she is the one who pointed them out, she is the one who confessed,” he said.

The case returns to court on Friday.