Article: Melinda Ferguson from True Love
Image: IMAGES24/ Die Burger / Yunus Mohammed

"We live in a selfishly violent society in which husbands get callously 'cashed in' by wives for insurance payouts... [Although] there is no empirical evidence to back up what I say, a random look at other recent contract murders indicates that women [are] getting their husbands killed so they can inherit insurance money."

Khumalo was referring to a spate of killings over the last two years, allegedly committed by women driven to kill by greed or revenge. A particularly gruesome murder was that of Albert Mojapelo, a West Rand mining executive. On 29 September, 2005, Mojapelo woke up early, scarcely able to contain his excitement.

In just one day he was to receive R1-million in pension and retirement payouts. But before his ship came in, cruel fate and greed intervened. Mojapelo was kidnapped by three armed men, driven in his own 4x4 to a secluded area on Orange Farm and shot twice in the head and once in the upper body. His widow, Tinky Mojapelo, 38, her friend, Antoinette Mkhensani Masuku, and one of the alleged hitmen, Orlando Mandoza, appeared in court in November last year on kidnapping and murder charges.

In a report in the Sowetan, (29 November, 2006) after the accused's court appearance, the deceased man's sister, Sophie Makgotla, said she had never felt comfortable about her brother's wife. "Their marriage was a secret. My brother was emotionally abused by his wife," she said. She also claimed that his widow and alleged hitman, Mandoza, had been lovers. "I want justice done.

Women can have violent impulses
They deserve a long sentence so they can be an example to other women who are planning to kill their husbands," said Makgatlo. The trial has been postponed until 1 June this year. "We tend to forget that women can have violent impulses, and can be responsible for these deeds just like men can," says Professor Deborah Posel, head of WISA (Wits Institute for Social and Economic research).

"Of course, we should not forget that women are generally the victims of violence at the hands of men. But it would be naive to romanticise all women as non-violent, peace-loving creatures."

"While women have played a key role in the struggle in this country as brokers of peace, I don't doubt that women are capable of being violent or hiring people to perform a violent crime." "We are a murderous bunch here in SA," says Dr Elrena van der Spuy of the University of Cape Town Criminology Department.

"The desire to exterminate partners must have something to do with the perception that it will resolve intractable conflicts. In addition, we have high tolerance levels for using violence to settle scores."

"I think we have underestimated the extent of lawlessness in our country," adds Professor Posel. "We tend to forget that violence has become a way of interacting, defining – at least in part – the terms of a relationship; it has become a language in itself."

Copying what men have long been doing
Although murder and homicide have traditionally been primarily male terrain, according to Dr Van der Spuy, "Recent examples of women hiring the services of amateurs or professionals to murder, are probably just a way of copying what men have long been doing."

"Third party or contract murders are bound to be more premeditative and 'rational' as opposed to killings which happen in the heat of the moment. Contract assassinations also suggest a privatisation of violence with the view to settling disputes which may be personal, political or economic."

We are all too aware of the insanely high and devastating levels of crime in South Africa today; in fact some people have all but become immune to it. Contract killings just add to the milieu of violence.

Although not strictly falling into the category of 'black widow', her high-profile murder case has led people to call alleged baby killer, Capetonian Dina Rodrigues, every name imaginable from 'evil personified' to the 'incarnation of Satan'.

The baby Jordan murder
Few can forget the headlines and media frenzy that erupted in June 2005 when news of the murder of six-month-old baby Jordan Norton hit the news-stands. At the heart of the sensational case was then 24-year-old Dina Rodrigues, accused of masterminding the brutal attack by hiring four hitmen to murder baby Jordan, the daughter of her boyfriend, Neil Wilson.

Rodrigues is alleged to have been enormously threatened by the presence of the baby, even though the child's mother, Natasha Norton, and Neil Wilson were no longer romantically involved. Dina was "very upset, very angry" when a paternity test showed that he was the girl's father, according to Neil Wilson in the Cape Town High Court in February 2006.

Wilson testified in court last year that he had received an SMS from Rodrigues at 1pm on the day of the murder asking him to call her. When Wilson called her back, she said: "Your baby is dead", and that she had paid R10 000... "for it all to go away."

Rodrigues' bail was revoked in September 2005 after she threatened Wilson with SMSs, violating a bail condition that prohibited any contact with state witnesses. (At the time of going to print sensational, new evidence was heard in court by an 18-year-old identifying Rodrigues as the woman who paid the group of four hitmen to murder baby Jordan.)

"States in transition often produce insecurity and a breakdown in traditional structures," says Johannesburg-based clinical psychologist, Diana Kriegler. "We are seeing this expressed in the general increase in crime in SA now – with new-found freedom or huge changes in economic and political status, chaos tends to fill where there used to be some (albeit oppressive) structures. Perhaps women, too, are beginning to lash out as they now have the space to do so."

"As the liberation struggle is replaced by that of a struggle for empowerment, the focus on materialism intensifies," adds clinical psychologist, Lerato Mabalenge. "In some instances this results in high levels of greed, fostering a self-centred attitude and the need for instant gratification. Women have been empowered in visible and significant ways. With that, the notion of a dependent woman is becoming foreign, as many aspire to acquire wealth and take matters into their own hands, where some choose violence in a misguided attempt to gain power."

"The temptation to use violence in a society like ours, with a long history of brutalisation, is enormous," continues Professor Posel. "Add the cocktail of money and greed and you end up with something just as explosive in a woman's hands as it would be in a man's."

Women are assuming control over their lives
We live in an age of many changes, a world of the Laila Alis, Lara Crofts, Tank Girls and movies like the Kill Bill series, where Uma Thurman literally takes on and tramples down an army of men. More and more female superhero icons are taking their lives and safety into their own hands and on occasion, perpetrate violence themselves.

"In popular culture, violence has always been regarded as a male domain, but recently a counter trend is emerging which presents women as far more assertive, active and physically capable of defending themselves as well as perpetrating violence," says Professor Posel.

"So we have many more young women who really have assumed some control over their lives, who feel empowered and who are definitely not pushovers. Of course they are not the majority; but this new image does shift the way we think about gender."

But does this make women killers? Of course not. It does, however, create a distinct notion that times are changing. "I think we notice these cases more and sensationalise them because they violate cultural assumptions of women as caregivers and peacemakers," says Dr van der Spuy.

"It's probably worth re-examining those cultural assumptions." "It's an illusion that women are all-vulnerable and sensitive, while men are all-macho and logical," adds clinical psychologist Lerato Mabalenge.

One woman who seemed anything but 'vulnerable and sensitive' was Christina Molokomme, wife of Scorpions detective, Phillip Molokomme, who was kidnapped in December last year by two hit men. Christina, a once trusted wife and Polokwane police officer, allegedly hatched a plan to have her husband killed after discovering information that would lead to her enrichment in the event of her husband's death.

She allegedly hired hitmen who gained access to the Molokomme home with her own remote control and were armed with her police-issue firearm when they overpowered her husband and kidnapped him. Molokomme was rescued just in time when police were tipped off about the kidnapping, and Christina Molokomme was arrested soon thereafter on charges of conspiring to kidnap.

Is this a new trend?
The question of whether these cases represent a chilling and disturbing new trend begs to be answered. "Although these cases may not in fact be showing something as big as a 'trend', they are important in that they are lifting the lid on the idea that women, too, can perpetrate violence," says Professor Posel.

Lisa Vetten, senior researcher and policy analyst at Tshwaranang (an organisation that fights violence against women), warns on reading too much into the current 'trend-spotting' situation. "These cases are attracting so much attention in the media because they are unusual."

"It's really sensationalising this stuff and trying to make a trend out of nothing. I think beneath all this hysteria, people's concerns are being fuelled that women have been given too much power. They are now being demonised and seen as being dangerous – capable of wiping men out. Why is there no equivalent to a black widow in male terms?"

"There are in fact very few cases like Daisy De Melker, and all this nonsense about women being dangerous and nasty just makes for good sales of publications. Every day four women are killed by their male partners!"

"Why are we not examining that in the same way as we are inspecting these isolated cases and trying to make a trend out of them? It's very dangerous to feed into the sensation and label these cases as this 'new trend' – violence has always existed in human nature."

"We simply don't know whether this is a new trend," says Dr van der Spuy. "To talk about trends means plotting the rise and fall of phenomena over longer periods of time and having access to reliable data on the subject matter. Contract killings in SA are yet to receive this kind of empirical research attention."

"There have always been people, men and women who kill for money and greed, or for revenge," says Vetten. "Greed is a very sad fact of human nature. But in this instance, all we really have are three or four cases, where only one woman has been in fact found guilty – so how can we possibly call this a trend?"

Trend or no trend, what comes to mind is this: has society become so callous that the quest for money and self-enrichment has drowned all reason, where human life can be snuffed on command in exchange for cash?

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