Imibuzo episode 8 recap: Trillion Dollar killer Sandile Mantsoe

Trigger warning: This case includes graphic descriptions of gender-based violence.  

On 2 May, 2018, millionaire forex trader Sandile Mantsoe was convicted of stabbing 22-year-old business student Karabo Mokoena to death, dousing her corpse with petrol and swimming pool acid, and burning it with a tyre around her neck in a shallow grave in Johannesburg. At the time of the murder, 28-year-old Sandile was a father of three children with two different women, estranged from his wife, and living extravagantly through proceeds from his “investment” company, Trillion Dollar Legacy.  

During the trial it was revealed that Karabo had gone to hospital for treatment on 27 March 2017 after Sandile assaulted her. And in early April, the two had opened cases of common assault against each other. At the time of the murder, Karabo was trying to escape the relationship, during which Sandile subjected her to continuous violence and abuse. 

Sandile was sentenced to 32 years in prison in 2018. And in August 2022 he was summoned to court from prison to face further charges after a Hawks investigation linked him to R2 million worth of investment fraud through his company, Trillion Dollar Legacy, in which he allegedly targeted government workers via a Ponzi scheme. 

Now Imibuzo highlights the issue of GBV in South Africa as journalist Naledi Shange, state advocate Pakanyiswa Marasela, Hilary Leong – the director and co-founder of the Karabo Mokoena Foundation (an anti-GBV advocacy group established in October 2017 by Karabo's family) and the co-founder and chairperson for Awareness for Child Trafficking Africa (ACT Africa) – and clinical psychologist Dr Gérard Labuschagne talk about Karabo’s murder and the complicated impact of GBV.  

Recap: What happened in Imibuzo episode 1 

Recap: What happened in Imibuzo episode 2 

Recap: What happened in Imibuzo episode 3 

Recap: What happened in Imibuzo episode 4 

Recap: What happened in Imibuzo episode 5 

Recap: What happened in Imibuzo episode 6 

Recap: What happened in Imibuzo episode 7 

Watch the trailer for Imibuzo 

Caught on camera 

Imibuzo opens with a chilling summary of GBV statistics: every day in South Africa, three men murder their female partners. Between April 2020 and September 2022, 988 women were killed in domestic violence in South Africa.  

The episode shows CCTV footage of Sandile Mantsoe dragging a seemingly empty black wheelie bin out of the lift on the fourth floor in his apartment building at 21:57 on Friday, 28 April 2017, then dragging it back into the lift on the fourth floor at 22:06, with the bin looking a lot heavier, and the lid slightly lifted. In that bin, police say, was the body of Karabo Mokoena, his ex-girlfriend who he’d controlled, violently abused, then murdered, during their short relationship.   

A stolen future 

Karabo was an ambitious young woman. At the age of just 22 she was studying business, had earned her aviation licence, was active in her church, and was working with an NGO advocating for women’s rights. Despite her life being cut short, her loved ones wanted to make sure that this passion and her determination to do good in the world lived on. So together with her family, Hilary Leong, whose daughter Stephanie was a close friend of Karabo’s, co-founded the Karabo Mokoena Foundation, an anti-GBV advocacy group, in her memory. “They wanted to continue that legacy that she was very much involved in at the Frida Hartley Shelter for abused women, and to fight against this evil plaguing South Africa, because we’ve had so many murders that have taken place as a result of gender-based violence. It was just enough!” says Hilary. “It’s not a case I can look at objectively.” 

The “Trillionaire” killer 

At the time of the murder, Sandile Mantsoe was a Forex dealer whose lifestyle trumpeted his supposed success. He drove Karabo’s corpse to a shallow grave in the boot of his gold BMW, and Imibuzo’s footage shows social posts that Sandile made featuring his flashy luxury life, expensive watches, and boasting about his company, Trillion Dollar Legacy, and its supposed Forex profits, by revving the engine of a blue BMW M2. Sandile was used to getting his way, convinced of his power to be persuasive. 

“He appeared very confident of himself,” says Naledi. “I remember how he evolved from the man that I first saw in that very first court appearance for bail. Then he seemed afraid. It seemed like he was not understanding what was happening around him. But as the days progressed and the trial went on, he came to court looking flashy in his suits with a big, gold watch on his wrist. And even to the very end, he maintained that he was innocent of everything. He never lost his confidence in court.”  

A brief and deadly love 

According to reporter Naledi Shange, Karabo and Sandile met in October 2016 and the two had been together for about five months at the time of her death.  It seems to have been a classic case of an abuser love-bombing his target to get her under his roof and under his control, then clamping down using verbal and physical abuse.  

“Karabo was actually with her sister and her friend when she met Sandile in Sandton. The two of them immediately struck things off, and the relationship progressed pretty quickly because within a few weeks Karabo was living with Sandile Mantsoe at his apartment in Sandton,” says Naledi. “It didn’t even take a month before there were allegations of abuse.” 

“The day before her birthday, she’d had a confrontation with Sandile Mantsoe, and he had smashed her phone as well as assaulted her. There were pictures that surfaced afterwards which showed her with a bruised eye and a bruised knee. She looked badly beaten up after that,” says Naledi. “And from what the sister said, they had struggled to get hold of Karabo the entire day on her birthday because Sandile Mantsoe had destroyed her phone. Karabo spent her very first birthday with Sandile in hospital, where she was being treated for being assaulted by Sandile Mantsoe.” 

By breaking Karabo’s phone, Sandile might also have wanted to clamp down on Karabo expressing thoughts online. Imibuzo plays video footage from Karabo’s social media in which she says, “Most of us desire to be wives. Most. And he’s not exactly marrying my hair, my light skin, dark skin or my curves. My curves are not going to cook for him. And my hair is definitely not going to assume the roles and responsibilities of a wife in the home. He still needs to deal with the flaws in my character. Unpleasant attitude…” 

She tried to leave 

“Karabo Mokoena’s friend Stephanie Leong stated that at one point she received a call from Karabo asking her to come and pick her up from Sandile Mantsoe’s apartment in Sandton,” recalls Naledi. “Karabo had already packed all her belongings. But instead of them moving out at that particular moment they went out together. And while they were at a club they bumped into Sandile and the couple spoke. And instead of Karabo heading home, Stephanie and Karabo returned back to Sandile’s residence in Sandton. Along the way Stephanie shared about how Karabo was intoxicated. While he was driving, Sandile reached back and grabbed Karabo by the throat trying to stop her as she kept accusing him of cheating. Even after that incident, Karabo didn’t really leave Sandile.” 

According to Naledi, Karabo’s friends and family kept on encouraging her to leave the relationship with Sandile, “And at one point it seemed that she had, because she left and moved back home to Diepkloof, Soweto. But shortly thereafter she went back again to Sandile Mantsoe. Karabo’s sister Bontle as well as the mother knew of the abuse that Karabo was in. They testified about how they encouraged her to leave the relationship. Queen Lebo, her church mentor, also shared about how Karabo shared images of her bruised eye and all of that, injuries that she had allegedly suffered at the hands of Sandile Mantsoe.” 

Karabo even took her case to the police. “Karabo Mokoena did open a case of assault against Sandile Mantsoe. This was after the time that she was assaulted so badly that she needed medical treatment,” says Naledi. But, chillingly, Sandile had anticipated what she’d do, and effectively blocked her. “What we found out was that on the day she went to go and open a case against Sandile Mantsoe, she got to the police station to find that Sandile Mantsoe had actually also opened a case against her for assault,” says Naledi. His tactic worked. Instead of investigating further, and despite medical evidence of serious abuse, Naledi reveals, “Essentially, the case was dropped by the SAPS. Nothing was ever done.”  

Why they don’t leave 

In every case in which an abuser kills their victim, people – including the police – ask why the victim didn’t “just leave”. Aside from the fact that leaving the relationship is statistically the most lethal time in a cycle of abuse, the question ignores the psychological impact that an abuser’s manipulation has on their target.  

Clinical psychologist Dr Gérard Labuschagne has 22 years of experience in the field of forensic psychology, and spent 14 and a half years as the head of the South African Police Services’ Investigative Psychology Unit. 

Gérard notes that domestic abuse can start subtly, long before the first blow, with abusers saying things that are meant to start exerting control and removing support systems like, “I don’t like what you’re wearing today,” and “I don’t like that friend of yours. I don’t want you to go out with her”, or “Your parents don’t like me, they always look at me funny. We’re not going to go to them as much as possible.”  

“What you slowly find is that this controlling behaviour isolates you from your friends and family, in other words, your support group,” he notes. “He controls how you behave, how you dress, where you go, your movements. He might even start to control the financial purse strings [younger women with older boyfriends especially vulnerable to financial abuse]. And then often it comes with breaking the person down.”

Gérard lists things that abusers often tell their targets like, “Nobody else will love you the way I do,” and “You’re so ugly,” “You’re not good at this.” “You’re useless”. “You keep on making mistakes.” Those words have a purpose, and abusers use them deliberately. “That breaks down the person’s self-esteem, which makes it more difficult to leave,” he says. “And then often, around this time, you also find that the physical abuse also takes place. And what happens after that grooming process is that it’s far more difficult for that person to leave.”  

In Gérard’s eyes, the way that Sandile disposed of Karabo’s corpse wasn’t as personal as it might seem. Sandile’s actions stemmed purely from self interest. “He set it on fire in an attempt to destroy as much evidence as possible, and delay her being identified,” he says. “If you look at his behaviour, we had him cleaning up the blood in that flat very quickly. We have him buying petrol. I believe he also stopped off at his mother’s home and obtained pool acid, and then took her to the veld and set her on fire. For me, that’s all about body disposal, destroying evidence, and delaying the identification of this individual.” 

Not content with destroying Karabo’s body, Sandile also went on to smear her reputation to cover his tracks, while tossing in some xenophobia to divert attention to an easy target. “He was telling people that she had gone off with some Nigerian guy to Nigeria,” Gérard says. “Did he think he was smarter than anybody else? It’s hard to say. He perhaps hoped he was going to get away with it. Whether he thought, ‘I have done this in such a smart way,’ well … if you were that smart, you wouldn’t have killed someone in your own apartment,” says Gérard.  

Last seen alive 

“The last time that Karabo Mokoena was seen alive was through CCTV footage that was taken at Sandton Skye, Sandile Mantsoe’s apartment,” says Naledi. 

 Imibuzo plays the footage, taken on Friday, 28 April at 02:48, which shows Karabo and Sandile walking out of the building’s lift on the fourth floor, headed for Sandile’s apartment. Karabo’s sister Bontle told the court that she and Karabo were meant to have gone out together that night, but instead Karabo went out to a club in Santon with her friends. And while out with her friends, Karabo bumped into her ex-boyfriend, Sandile (whether this was a second coincidence or Sandile was tracking Kabarbo’s phone, Imibuzo does not say). “The two of them started talking,” says Naledi, “and instead of returning home that night, Karabo agreed to go back home with Sandile. Karabo’s face in that footage tells a story on its own. She looked despondent, She looked sad. She didn’t look like somebody who was excited to be going to fix things with her boyfriend,” says Naledi. 

It was to be a last reunion for the couple. Around 22:00 on Friday, 28 April, Sandile dragged her corpse out of his apartment in a wheelie bin, and loaded the bin with the body inside into the boot of his car. He drove to his family home to collect pool acid and a tyre, before driving off to Lyndhurst. “He drove to a ditch, where he set her alight,” says Naledi. And on Saturday, 29 April, CCTV footage from Sandile’s apartment taken at 00:36 shows him going into the lift of the fourth floor carrying a green rubbish bag while wearing blue protective gloves.  

Soon after Karabo disappeared, her friend Stephanie Leong posted a missing persons message. Karabo’s circle of friends and family spread the word, picking up high profile retweets. Diepkloof police eventually made the connection between Karabo and an unidentified body that the Sandton police had found on a barren piece of wasteland in Lyndhurst on 29 April. When the investigating officer came across it, the body was still on fire, according to Naledi, and only Karabo’s feet still remained unburned.  

Sandile Mantsoe was arrested in connection with Karabo’s murder on 10 May 2017, and Imibuzo shows a message from Tsehpo Mokeona, Karabo’s uncle that reads, “The boyfriend confession. He killed and burned my daughter.”  

The incident, coming on top of so much violence against women perpetrated by intimate partners, sparked grief, outrage and even confusion, with some wondering why Karabo, the victim, had chosen to go back to Sandile – instead of spotlighting the choices made by Sandile Mantsoe himself.  

In a recording, Karabo’s uncle says, “I’ve seen the pictures. It’s terrible. Both parents can’t talk. They’re numb. Why would you kill someone, put them in a bin, dump them, and burn them with a tyre around their neck, as if they had done something terrible, and burn her beyond recognition?” he asks.  

Everything but the truth 

In court, Sandile jumped from lie to lie about what had happened in his apartment on the day of Karabo’s death. Naledi reveals, “According to police when they questioned Sandile Mantsoe, he confessed to having killed Karabo Mokoena. At the time the version that was coming out was that Karabo Mokoena was killed because of a ritual. It was alleged that the couple had gone into a blood covenant that required them to stay together to ensure Sandile’s businesses also thrived. If one of them wanted to pull out of the relationship it would have to result in the death of the other. So according to Sandile Mantsoe, Karabo ‘volunteered’ or sacrificed herself.”  

Newspaper headlines shown by Imibuzo reveal that Sandile Montsoe also claimed to have been following the orders of a Ghanaian sangoma – another attempt to leverage xenophobia to redirect public attention to an “easy” target.  

“There was another version that came from Sandile Mantsoe, that he left Karabo in his apartment to go to a meeting. He claimed to have come back in his apartment and found that she had committed suicide by stabbing herself in the neck. Sandile alleged that he was scared that he’d be blamed for Karabo’s murder and this is why he disposed of her body,” Naledi reveals. “But as the trial commenced, the versions changed, and he denied this confession that he had allegedly given to the police.” 

“He wanted us to believe that Karabo Mokoena had injured herself and killed herself,” says Pakanyiswa Marasela. “The evidence was the opposite of what Sandile Mantsoe was saying in his testimony.” 

For once in Sanele’s life, the lies didn’t pay. He was found guilty of murder, assault, and defeating the ends of justice, and sentenced to 32 years behind bars. Imibuzo plays the closing statement from acting judge Peet Johnson in which he says, “The court cannot describe you in any other way than a devil in disguise.” 

Pakanyiswa Marasela adds, “Sandile Matnsoe was disrespectful. He was so confident, thinking that, ‘I am the only person who is correct. The other people are wrong.’”  

After he was convicted, Pakanyiswa asked Sandie whether he had anything to say to Karabo’s family. Sandile told her, “No, I’m sorry.” And when judge Johnson asked him to explain what he was sorry for, Pakanyiswa reveals, “Sandile Mantsoe couldn’t answer. He came up with a story that he wrote a letter and sent somebody and the Mokoena family didn’t want to take that letter.” 

“Sandile Montsoe never really apologised for murdering Karabo Mokoena. Up until the very end he maintained his story that he did destroy her body, but that he was not responsible for her killing,” adds Naledi.  

Imibuzo plays footage of Sandile telling a court reporter, “It’s unfortunate that I came into her life at a point when things were already bad. So, maybe I’m guilty of trying to build a person, and being the last one there when she collapsed. The truth of the matter is that I tried my best.” 

While Sandile tried to shift blame to Karabo, her sister Bontle laid her to rest with the last words of love she actually deserved. In Imibuzo’s scenes from Karabo’s funeral, Bontle thanked her sister for the person she had been, and the example she had given her.  

About Imibuzo 

Now streaming on Showmax, Imibuzo is a true-crime documentary anthology that will answer your lingering questions about some of South Africa’s biggest news stories from the last decade. New episodes will drop every Monday until 10 July 2023.  

Imibuzo is being produced by POP24, part of Media24, who made the reality series This Body Works For Me, which topped the Showmax Top 20 and Twitter trends charts. POP24 also co-produced the SAFTA-nominated true crime anthology Huisgenoot: Ware Lewensdramas.