MY SISTER BROKE MY HEART

Rosemary Ndlovu’s sibling tells YOU how she escaped the convicted serial killer’s gruesome plot to murder her and her children

- PECULIA MUSHWANA

SHE wept when the judge handed down his verdict. Joyce Ndlovu was relieved to hear that the person she’d feared for years – the woman who’d picked off her family one by one – was going to be locked away for the rest of her life.

In a case that sent shock waves across South Africa, Rosemary Ndlovu was sentenced to six life terms after she went on a six-year killing spree targeting her loved ones. The cop-turned-serial killer was convicted in 2021 for orchestrating the murders of her fiancé and five family members for insurance payouts worth just over R1,4 million.

Now a Showmax documentary series, Rosemary’s Hitlist, has re-ignited public interest in the case and brought up painful memories for her family.

The last time Joyce saw her sister was at her trial, where she heard she’d hired hitmen to kill her and her children by setting the house alight while they were sleeping inside.

Ndlovu had wanted to make it look like an accidental death, which would result in her getting a hefty sum from insurance policies.

At first she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was hard to process that the sister with whom she grew up and trusted had planned to wipe out her entire family.

She also learnt in court that Ndlovu had plotted to kill their mother, Maria Mushwana.

“It took me a long time to accept and make peace with the accusations against her because we’re sisters and she was an officer of the law,” Joyce tells YOU.

“A part of me felt a little sorry when she was arrested, but when all the evidence came in and everything pointed to her, I had no choice but to believe the law and what was presented before me,” she says.