Man found dead after assaulting partner

MSHOLOZI – While the campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children continues, the community was left in shock when a man in his early 40s committed suicide on Wednesday night, after fighting with his partner.

Rumour has it that the man was apparently informed of his partner’s unfaithfulness at work. When the man arrived home on Wednesday morning, his partner wasn’t there.

He apparently waited for her to return when an argument broke out. Members of the community say they heard the couple fight about the woman’s whereabouts at 11:00.

Neighbours alleged that the woman was severely assaulted with a firearm, and when neighbours tried to intervene, the man threatened to shoot them.

At about 16:00 two gunshots were fired and by that time the police and ambulance service were summoned to the scene. Upon their arrival the man through the woman out of the house and locked himself in.

Police pleaded with him several times to come out, but after a negotiator’s cries also fell on deaf ears, members of his family of Pienaar arrived to try and persuade him to come outside. Some of his relatives alleged that they last spoke to him at 17:30, when he informed them of the situation.

At around 19:15 police broke down the door and a window. Upon entering the house police found his lifeless body in a pool of blood. “It seems like he shot himself a while,” said Capt Rekios Mogane, station commander of White River police. Police investigations also show that the firearm was legal and the deceased was its rightful owner.