Aahana Swrup
‘Fatal Seduction,’ a South African Netflix drama show created by Steven Pillemer, delves into the world of crime and infidelity. On a weekend away with her best friend, Brenda, Nandi Mahlati cheats on her husband with a younger man, Jacob. However, as the weekend ends, Nandi finds herself in the middle of an investigation revolving around Brenda’s sudden death. Meanwhile, Jacob turns out to be one of Nandi’s students for the college semester, leading to a continuation of their affair. Now, caught in a whirlwind romance and a murder investigation, Nandi’s life spirals out of control in ways she never expected.
As the show progresses, Leonard, Nandi’s husband, is developed as a character, and we discover his suspiciously dark past revolving around the murder investigation of a young child named Busi Vilakazi. Due to the deceit and mystery surrounding Busi’s death, viewers might be curious to know more about the killer responsible. Here is everything we know about the same. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Minister’s Driver Likely Responsible for Busi’s Murder
Busi Vilakazi, a young girl, was one of Brenda’s students from her teaching days. Ten years before the show’s events, Busi was raped and killed, and the cops discovered her body half-buried in the woods. After an investigation headed by Detective Charlie Vuyo, the authorities convicted a man named Benjamin Jiba with a witness statement from Brenda and a prosecution delivered by Leonard Mahlati, Vuyo’s brother. Soon after Jiba was put behind bars, he committed suicide after everyone, including his family, refused to believe his innocence.
Although Busi’s case is closed after Jiba’s death, Brenda’s suicide puts it back on Vuyo’s radar. Since Brenda was so closely involved in the case, its horrifying nature wrecked her pretty significantly and left her forever changed. Likewise, the case also marked the last of Vuyo’s career after he got shot in the leg during the case’s investigation period.
Vuyo was dubious about Jiba’s involvement in the case considering the cops had little to no tangible evidence against him. Vuyo believed they should look into the incident further before prosecuting Jiba, but soon Brenda came out with her statement, and the case was out of Vuyo’s hands. Though Vuyo accepts everything for what it is at first, he eventually finds out a more menacing truth.
Since the case was a career-defining moment for Leonard, he wanted to speed up the process. Busi was the daughter of a significant Minister, and Leonard wanted to provide satisfactory justice as soon as possible to get in the Minister’s good graces. As a result, he convinced Brenda to lie on the record and claim she saw Benjamin Jiba, the local mechanic, with Busi on the day of her murder.
All this convoluted politics-driven deceit points to one clear verdict: Benjamin Jiba did not kill Busi Vilakazi. Still, the question remains, if not Jiba, then who? During the early investigation, Vuyo was suspicious of the Minister’s driver before Leonard enforced the Jiba angle. The unnamed driver had regular contact with Busi, and several eyewitnesses saw him with Busi on the day of her murder.
Nevertheless, the Minister had blind faith in his driver and urged Leonard to keep him out of the investigation. Consequently, Leonard framed Jiba for the murder and swept the case under the rug before getting promoted to Judge. As such, it is most likely that the Minister’s driver raped and killed Busi, but the Minister protected him later. Perhaps the driver manipulated the Minister into winning his utmost trust, or maybe he is holding something over the Minister’s head that prevents him from putting the driver under fire.
Vuyo’s extensive investigation as an experienced cop only led him to the driver, with no other suspects in sight. Due to the same, it is more than likely that the driver killed Busi unless a new character is introduced in the show’s upcoming second volume.
Ultimately, only time will reveal the entire truth behind Busi’s death. However, as of now, the Minister’s driver poses as the only viable suspect once you count Benjamin Jiba out. In the end, the mystery remains about the driver’s inexplicable ability to escape all consequences with added immunity from the victim’s politically powerful father himself.
Read More: Is Netflix’s Fatal Seduction Based on a True Story?
