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.
“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.
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.
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