Thursday, August 29, 2024 -A 35-year-old man, Bantubenkosi Siqotyana, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal m8rder of his girlfriend in South Africa.
The Eastern Cape High Court sitting in Mthatha, sentenced Siqotyana
on Wednesday, August 28, 2024.
He was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, Nombeko Thobigunya in
December 2023.
The court heard that Siqotyana cut his girlfriend’s body into pieces
and threw the parts into multiple pit toilets to conceal the crime of murder.
Explaining the case, National
Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said Thobigunya was
reported missing by her family on December 13, 2023.
“She had last been seen in the company of
Siqotyana 12 days earlier. A human hand was discovered being eaten by a dog in
the village of Thembeni in Zandukwana area of the District of Libode,"
Thobigunya said.
“The deceased’s friend identified the hand with
nail polish she had applied with her before her disappearance, and that led
community members to the boyfriend, Siqotyana.”
Tyali said the accused was severely
assaulted by the community, before he led them to the different locations where
he had dumped the pieces.
“Police were summoned and the accused made
admissions and pointed out the remains at multiple pit toilets in the
location.”
The NPA said at the start of the trial,
Siqotyana pleaded not guilty to murder and defeating the ends of justice.
“But (he) pleaded guilty to the
charge of violating a corpse. He claimed that the deceased had died due to food
poisoning, but he decided to cut the dead body into pieces because he feared
the community would believe that he had killed her,” said Tyali.
Advocate Siphokazi Maarman did not
accept his plea and proceeded to call witnesses, including an eyewitness who
had seen Siqotyana assaulting the deceased earlier on that day, and the doctor
who identified stab wounds on the neck part of the deceased’s parts, which
disproved the accused’s version of food poisoning.
0 Comments