THE mother of Tania Msane Zungu, who in 2024 was fatally shot by her husband, Lwanda Mxolisi Zungu, hopes for a life sentence for each of the bullets fired on the fateful day that claimed her daughter’s life.

“Since he fired eight bullets he must get eight life sentences for each bullet,” said Patience Msane outside the Pinetown Regional Court on Tuesday (July 21) following Zungu’s conviction for Tania’s murder.

Zungu will remain in custody until his next court appearance on August 28 for possible sentence proceedings.

Handing the judgment, Magistrate Muntu Khumalo said the reason why Zungu was discharged from a second count leveled against him, for allegedly pointing a firearm at his son, who was 15 years old the time, was that the State had not led any evidence on this accusation.

This discharge followed an application which had been made by Zungu’s defence for him to be discharged on both counts, with the first being for Tania’s murder, with the application for the latter dismissed by the court.

Khumalo said it was “peculiar” that after Zungu shot Tania, he did not seek medical assistance but rather interfered with the crime scene by taking the gun, which belonged to him, and leaving for Johannesburg.

“His actions are inconsistent with innocence,” said Khumalo, who added that there was no evidence that Zungu had reached out to the police or any other person to inform them about the shooting on January 3, 2024, in the couple’s bedroom at their residence in Pinetown.

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Khumalo said the court accepted the State’s evidence, which was supported by facts, that Zungu must have been the shooter.

“He was seen by Mrs [Patience] Msane shooting the deceased,” said Khumalo, who had earlier explained that in reaching its decision, the court had to consider who had pulled the trigger in light of Zungu’s version that Tania had pointed the gun at him and that the weapon went off while they struggled over it.

Khumalo said Zungu’s version was rejected as false and that the State had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The magistrate said evidence by a police officer, who conducted tests on the murder weapon, and the doctor who performed the post mortem on Tania, indicated that Zungu’s version was false.

The doctor, Khumalo said, told the court that if the gun had been fired closer to Tania, during a struggle, they would have found “tattooing” on her body, and that the first bullet had left her “90% incapacitated” and so she could have not possibly shot herself during the struggle, as suggested by Zungu’s version.

Khumalo said he found Msane had been a credible witness despite inconsistencies and errors in her evidence, which were minor and neither had an effect nor were they “fatal to the State’s case”.

Zungu had pleaded not guilty and denied having shot Tania. He had told the court that he and Tania had been engaged in an argument over personal issues when she pointed a gun at him, prompting him to jump for the weapon, resulting in a struggle over the firearm.

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