Amanda Manku's father found guilty of murdering her mother and grandmother

William Manku, the father of Skeem Saam actress Amanda Manku, has been found guilty of murdering her mother and grandmother.

The Polokwane High Court convicted the former police captain on Monday, 26 October, of killing his wife, Gladys Manku, and his mother-in-law, Lettie Maphothoma. The two women were shot dead on 4 May 2021 in Makgophong village, Zebediela, in Limpopo, as they were coming back from collecting water.

Sentencing was postponed to 18 January 2027 so the court can consider pre-sentencing reports, Daily Sun reported. His co-accused, David Khoza, was acquitted after the court found the State had not presented enough evidence against him.

The State's case

The State argued that the killings were planned and grew out of trouble in the marriage after Manku's affair. According to Daily Sun, which was in court for the judgment, the evidence included a confession in which Manku admitted arranging the killings, and ballistic evidence that two firearms were used.

He was acquitted on a separate charge of conspiracy to commit murder. The court held that convicting him of both conspiracy and murder would duplicate the same conduct. The murder convictions stand. The conspiracy count does not, because the court treated it as the same conduct counted twice.

During the trial, Manku claimed that police had forced him to sign the confession. Daily Sun's July report of the trial carried that claim. Daily Sun's report of the judgment still lists the confession among the evidence against him. The court convicted him. It did not, in the accounts published on 26 and 27 October, set out a separate finding on the duress claim beyond the fact that the confession remained part of the evidence the judgment relied on.

A daughter on the witness stand

Amanda Manku testified for the State against her father. She told the court that when she confronted him after his arrest, he admitted his part in the killings.

"Yes, I did, but not with my own hands."

Her aunts and other relatives attended the judgment but declined to speak to Daily Sun, saying they were heartbroken. Neither Daily Sun nor The Citizen reported a comment from the actress after the verdict.

Sentencing in January

Manku was arrested in January 2024, more than two and a half years after the shootings. TimesLIVE and Sowetan reported the arrests that month. He returns to the Polokwane High Court on 18 January 2027 for sentencing. The pre-sentencing reports are the reason the court gave for the wait. The conviction is in. The sentence is not.

Khoza leaves the case acquitted. The two murder convictions against Manku are the findings the court has made. What sentence follows from them is the question reserved for January.

Sources: Daily Sun, 26 October 2026, from court; The Citizen, 27 October 2026; Daily Sun, 21 July 2026, on the confession claim; TimesLIVE, 11 January 2024, and Sowetan, 12 January 2024, on the arrests.