Naadira Vanker’s Killers Slapped with Life Sentences for her Murder

Two men have been slapped with life sentences for murdering Lenasia school teacher Naadira Vanker.

Lucky Mshubi and Thabo Mambila appeared in the South Gauteng High Court on Friday. 

They were convicted on murder, dolus eventualis last week. 

The duo faced a slew of charges including murder, housebreaking, robbery, kidnapping, attempted extortion and defeating the ends of justice. 

Both Mshubi and Mambila were handed an additional thirteen years for the remaining charges. 

While the court did not order that the sentences imposed will run concurrently with life imprisonment, the sentences on housebreaking and kidnapping were ordered to run concurrently with the robbery. 

The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Phindi Mjonondwane told Wired2News that in aggravation of sentence, the prosecution argued that Vankers four minor children will now have to grow up without a mother, adding that the murder was senseless, and the family had suffered indescribable trauma.

Vanker was abducted from her home by the two men on 22 April last year. 

Investigations subsequently led the team to a shack in Phumlamqashi, Lenasia South, where Mshubi took the police to a shallow grave in the yard where Vanker’s body was buried.

Mambila confessed that Mshubi called him on the day Vanker was murdered and told him that he needed assistance to complete a job for which he would be paid once it was done. 

Mshubi said he kidnapped Vanker for revenge against her husband after he lost his job which he blamed the school teacher’s husband for.