Love triangle: Murderer gets 7 years
Ndwalane was charged with premeditated murder for Sibusiso Martin Mngonyama, who was murdered in 2019 in Oslo Beach.
Thulebona Christopher Ndwalane (40) from Betania, a pump station supervisor at Ugu District Municipality, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for murder at the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court last Friday.
Also, eight years of the sentence was suspended for five years, with conditions.
Magistrate Johann Bester said Ndwalane was also unfit to possess a firearm and his licensed firearm was confiscated by the state for destruction.
Ndwalane was charged with the premeditated murder of Sibusiso Martin Mngonyama (40) at a house in Boundary Road, Oslo Beach, in 2019.
It is believed that Ndwalane and Mngonyama were both involved in a romantic relationship with the same woman that Ndwalane described as his fiancée.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder.
After being released on bail, Ndwalane made several court appearances since 2021.
The court proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing was premeditated.
“The accused’s intention to kill was clear. He walked to his vehicle to fetch a magazine loaded with ammunition, fitted it into his pistol and walked back to shoot Mngonyama repeatedly. While it may not have taken a long time for the accused to do this, it was sufficient for him to carry out a premeditated action, that of killing,” said Bester.
He added that it is very different from the situation where an accused person, in response to severe provocation and while infuriated, immediately draws a pistol from his waist and shoots the victim.
In his defence, Ndwalane acknowledged the correctness of the formal admissions made by him at the commencement of the trial and added that he had fired shots which caused the death of the victim.
After the incident, he went to the police station.
Dr Irshaad Khan, Chief Medical Officer for Ugu District Forensic Pathology Services, testified that he examined Mngonyama’s body.
He said that he found three distant-entry gunshot wounds and one intermediate-range entry gunshot wound.
The state prosecutor, Elize du Plessis, explained that the woman who had been on the scene of the shooting was a ‘competent but not compellable witness’.
After the incident, she had ostensibly married Ndwalane.
Mngonyama’s brother, Bob Mngonyama from Gamalakhe, said the family has suffered a lot after his death.
He said that he is happy with the sentencing even though it will not bring his brother back.
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