South Africa! The double murderer who claims to hear voices, R3 million dating scam case postponed after lawyer’s no-show in court 2025.7

Three men have appeared in court after they were arrested by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks, for defrauding an unsuspecting woman of her R3 million in a dating scam.

Last week, IOL reported that a third suspect was arrested for an intense scam where an unidentified woman lost R3 million in the name of love, back in 2024.

The victim, whose identity is withheld to protect her from victimisation, said she developed an online relationship with a person she believed was a white man called “Mark Hermanus”, whom she had met on Facebook.

Gauteng Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Thatohatsi Mavimbela said after exchanging numbers, the woman and the scammer started chatting on WhatsApp, and once they had “gotten to know each other”, the scammer asked her to lend him money to pay the medical bills of his sick son.

But these weren’t modest medical bills, and the unsuspecting woman eventually parted with R3 million, which she deposited into two bank accounts.

After the crime was reported to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit, an investigation ensued and the first suspect, Gabriel Okori, was arrested in Cape Town in October 2024. Okori, a Nigerian national, was in November released on bail of R5,000 in November. Okori has been attending his court appearances on charges of fraud and theft.

In March, IOL reported that a second suspect, Justice Motsamai Khanyapa, was arrested in connection with the scam. Khanyapa was arrested in Orange Farm, Johannesburg, and he was released on bail of R1,000 by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.

A third suspect, Thabo Derrick Mnguni, was arrested on 23 June.

All three accused men – Okori, Khanyapa, and Mnguni have appeared before court on Tuesday, and the case was postponed as Mnguni did not have legal representation. Mnguni was schduled to apply for bail. Okori and Khanyapa are already on bail.

“The lawyer for the third suspect did not show up in court. The matter was postponed to 9 July 2025,” said Mavimbela.

According to the Hawks, the money defrauded from the unsuspecting woman had been deposited into the bank accounts of Khanyapa and Mnguni.

Meanwhile, head of the Hawks in Gauteng, Major General Ebrahim Kadwa, commended the “meticulous investigation” conducted by the investigating team, and cautioned members of the public to be vigilant and safeguard themselves against such scams.

Double murderer Zaheera Boomgaard “hears voices” in her head, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria was told shortly before a social worker was due to present her presentencing report regarding Boomgaard’s personal circumstances to the court.

Boomgaard’s lawyer mentioned to the court that his client said she heard voices, although it was not elaborated on exactly what the voices entailed. It was instead decided to send Boomgaard for evaluation to the Sterkfontein psychiatric hospital.

This will be her second stint under psychiatric evaluation as she, at the start of her trial, also claimed to hear voices. Psychiatrists, however, at the time found that she did not suffer from any mental illness.

Boomgaard is due to be sentenced at this stage for the deaths of two elderly people, both in their 70s. They are Jamnadas Harkant Nathvani, a British national whose body was badly burnt, as well as that of her friend, Lyntette Mustapha.

Both bodies were found near a road in Walkerville not far from each other and within a few months of each other. Indications are that both were killed elsewhere and that Boomgaard dumped them next to the road before setting them alight.

She was meanwhile acquitted of a third murder – that of John Naisby, who went missing in 2012 after visiting Boomgaard and was never seen again. His body was never recovered, and his family eventually had him declared to be presumably dead by a court. Boomgaard denied Naisby had ever visited her. She testified that he came from Cape Town on route later to Rustenburg. She briefly spoke to him once at the Walkerville Spar, she said, where she left him and never saw him again.

Along with the two murders, Boomgaard was also convicted on a host of other crimes, including forging a will and 36 counts of theft regarding cash withdrawals from the account of one of her victims. It was established that she had used Nathvani’s bank card after his death, while a forged will pertaining to Mustapha was found in her home. In terms of the will, she (Boomgaard) inherited everything.

Judge John Holland-Muter said while there is no direct evidence linking her to the two killings, the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming. These include the tracking of her vehicle placing it on the scene where the body of Mustapha was found, along with bloody towels. The fraudulent will of this deceased was also found in her house.

Several neighbours also testified that Nathvani was at her place on several occasions, something Boomgaard did not deny. She, however, claimed he left for Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal and she never saw him again. Bank statements also proved that she made purchases with his bank card after his death.

Imprints matching her car were also found near where the body of Mustapha was found, and blood stains on one of her shoes matched the blood of Mustapha. The blood found on her sneakers indicated that Mustapha was bleeding in her presence, the judge said.

Regarding her car’s tyre imprints, the judge said the reasonable inference from this fact is that the deceased’s body was dragged from the vehicle to where the body was left.

“The tyre imprints matching that of the accused’s vehicle together with the dragging marks justify the inference that the body was taken from the vehicle and dumped next to the road. This is rather damning for the case of the accused,” Judge Holland-Muter earlier said.