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Pietermaritzburg - Four months after being paroled for attacking his lover, Bongani Enoch Nxumalo attacked his new partner, killing her by hacking her with a bush knife.
Nxumalo was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Albertina Thandi Mlambo by the High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday.
Nxumalo and Mlambo had made contact with each other via WhatsApp while he was in prison serving an eight-year sentence for attempted murder after an attack on a previous lover.
Although he was set to serve his sentence until 2018, he was granted parole in October last year and Mlambo allowed him to come and live with her and her 14-year-old daughter at their home in the Mpembeni area on the KZN North Coast.
In February this year, Nxumalo noticed WhatsApp messages on her phone indicating that she was communicating with other men.
Angered by this, he convinced Mlambo that she needed to perform a cleansing ceremony and lured her to a nearby bush. He was armed with a bush knife and carried a container of water. As she knelt down, Nxumalo struck her several times with the bush knife and fled the scene after hiding her body under some shrubbery.
According to National Prosecution Authority (NPA) spokesperson Natasha Kara, advocate Frank van Heerden had argued in aggravation of sentence that Nxumalo had had clear intentions to kill Mlambo as he had taken the concealed bush knife along.
Mlambo’s sister had told the court that her family was devastated by their loss. Mlambo was also the breadwinner of their family and they were now struggling financially.
Judge Nompumelelo Radebe said Nxumalo was a danger to women and described Mlambo’s murder as “horrific”.
“The deceased was chopped like a piece of wood,” the judge said.
