By Everson Luhanga
- Doctor Sobetha was sentenced in Bethal for pretending to be a lawyer, then arrested for a separate fraud case in Gauteng committed the same year.
- He also tried to claim his dead twin brother’s funeral policy by pretending to be him — but the insurer caught on.
A fake lawyer who conned his unsuspecting clients was sentenced to four years in jail and ordered to pay the money he was given by his clients in 2023.
Soon after this sentence was handed over in the ethal Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga, Doctor Sobetha was immediately rearrested for another fraud case he committed in Moroka, Gauteng Province, in 2023.
Doctor’s first arrest was in 2023 when he posed as a reputable attorney. He was caught red-handed inside the Bethal Magistrate’s Court while representing a man accused of murder.
It was only after the Hawks conducted a thorough investigation that they discovered his true identity — a fraud.
Doctor Sobetha, who was neither a doctor nor an attorney, was arrested on Friday 24 March 2023.
At the time of his arrest, the fake attorney was representing Mhlabuyaxega Mntungwa, a suspect linked to the infamous Sam Holdings manager’s murder case in 2019. This was the fourth time that the alleged fake attorney was representing the murder suspect in court.
On Friday Doctor Sobetha (32) pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years imprisonment with an option to pay R20 000 fine.
During that court appearance when Doctor was representing a murder suspect, the state prosecutor could pick up from his arguments that something is not adding up.
This led to the Hawks who swooped on him in court after he failed to let the authorities know the name of the institution where he studied law.
The only thing he could show to prove his legitimacy was the gown he wore and a matric certificate.
He was then locked up and the court had to adjourn for the murderer accused to find another legal representative.
The convicted fraudster fake lawyer had to look for a lawyer to represent him when he appeared in court.
After his first court appearance, Sobetha was granted bail in 2024 and never set foot in court again. That prompted the Hawks circulating his photos as a wanted suspect.
Investigation led members of the Hawks’ Tactical Operations Management System (TOMS) to Durban, where he was arrested on 22 May 2025.
Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Magonseni Nkosi said Sobetha was brought back to Mpumalanga, where he appeared before Bethal Magistrate’s Court on 30 May 2025. “When appearing for the second time on Thursday, 05 June 2025, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years imprisonment with an option to pay R20 000 fine.
“Two years of his four years imprisonment was suspended for five years on condition that he is not found guilty of a similar offense,” said Lt-Col Nkosi.
Lt-Col Nkosi the court further ordered the suspect to pay back R40 000 that was unlawfully received from his client. He is expected to pay back the money in monthly installments of R3 000 until the last cent is paid up.
Scrolla.Africa’s investigations revealed that Sobetha allegedly attempted to fraudulently claim a funeral policy after the mysterious death of his twin brother, Teacher Professor Matshia, who died on 30 December 2022.
Matshia’s body was found at a cemetery in Winterveld, Tshwane, inside a burnt-out car.
The brothers each took the surname of a different parent.
Eleven days after his brother’s death, Sobetha called the insurance company allegedly pretending to be his brother to say he wanted to change the policy so that his brother, Doctor, would be the one to benefit to the tune of R55,000.
Sobetha’s attempt was stopped by the insurance company.
Investigations into Matshia’s death are still underway. No one has been arrested and the family is waiting to find out who killed him.
At the time of his first arrest, the family told Scrolla.Africa that they were stunned to learn of Doctor’s arrest.
They said they were shocked to read that Doctor had shown the police a matric certificate when he was arrested.
They said he attended school up to Grade 10 and then dropped out.
The family said they had refused to believe rumours that had reached them that Sobetha was appearing in different courts around Tembisa, Pretoria and Mpumalanga wearing a gown that is normally worn by lawyers.
“We thought maybe he was just helping with odd jobs at courts when we heard that he was seen there, because we knew he was not educated.”
TIMELINE:
- Teacher, an electrical engineer, left home after he received a call on 29 December last year to help a family in Mabopane to install electrical appliances.
- On 30 December Doctor called the family to inform them that Teacher had been found dead in his burnt-out car.
- Teacher was buried on 4 March 2023.
- On 10 January Doctor made a call to the insurance company pretending to be Teacher and wanting to change the beneficiary of his funeral policy. The beneficiary’s name was changed so that Doctor would benefit.
- On 23 January Doctor made another call to the insurance company, saying that his brother Teacher had died and he wanted to claim the funeral policy money to help the family bury him.
- The insurance company sent documents to Doctor to fill in.
- Without thoroughly checking the death certificate or fully considering the logic of events, Doctor sent them Teacher’s death certificate and the signed documents so that they could approve and release the money.
- The insurance company picked up immediately that the death certificate showed Teacher had died on 30 December 2022 — 11 days before Doctor, impersonating the deceased man, called to change the beneficiary. Unless Teacher came back to life to make that call?
