Nicolene Smalman

The murderers of Graham and Kate Lizamore were sentenced on August 6 – only two weeks after they were brutally murdered.

The case was closed in record time since Brian Ali (24) and Thabisile Jali (27) pleaded guilty in the Durban High Court.

They were only supposed to appear in court again on August 12 but the court was eager to finalise the case since the two admitted to committing the crimes.

Both were sentenced to two life term jail sentences for murder and an additional 15 years for robbery. They will be serving the terms concurrently.

The Lizamores’ decomposing bodies were discovered by Kate’s sister on July 23. She went to their home in Moseley Park in Pinetown after several attempts to get hold of them were unsuccessful.

She found them on a toilet in the bathroom. A black refuse bag was covering Kate’s face and Barberton Times has since learnt that she was disembowelled during the brutal act. 

Post-mortems revealed that the couple died of strangulation.

Ali and Jali were arrested on August 2 when the Lizamores’ camera, a cellphone and two laptops were found in their possession. Ali was employed by the owner of Moseley Park and Jali was his girlfriend. They testified that they had killed Graham 09:30 on July 21. They proceeded with their daily chores and waited for Kate to return from work that afternoon upon which she too was murdered. Ali had been employed at the complex for six months.

Patrick Hayes, Kate’s brother-in-law, praised the Hawks for their excellent detective work which secured the arrests,

“Jali and Ali were given the maximum sentence which they deserve,” a relieved Hayes added.

The Lizamores founded Barberton Times in 2001. The couple had been working in the media industry for many years. They moved from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal where Kate started working for Independent Newspapers.