Durban — A man who was convicted of the murder of his girlfriend -- whom he killed by bashing her head into a wall five to seven times -- has been handed a life term of imprisonment by the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court.
In sentencing Mxolisi Mvula on Tuesday, magistrate Mohamed Motala said he found no substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence of life.
Mvula was convicted of the 2022 killing of Ntombikayise Phindile Mkhize, a murder that was read within the prescribes of the amended Domestic Violence Act.
The act was amended in August 2022 with legislation prescribing that life be the minimum sentence for murders in the setting of a domestic relationship.
“They were in a relationship. At some point there would have been love, and the deceased gave her heart, and ultimately her body.
“In turn, the accused thought he owned her and meted out a brutal, even barbaric, attack on her.
“She would have had no cause to harm him but instead, he disfigured her head and face and left her for dead.
“She was only 21 years old with a 3-year-old child,” said magistrate Motala.
Mvula was convicted on Monday when the court found that he had intended to kill Mkhize despite his defence that killing her was not his intention.
The court heard during the trial that on December 2, 2022 Mkhize had been at her place of residence, an unfinished house, with her friend. Mvula arrived and asked to talk to Mkhize who was 21 years old at the time.
Mkhize was reluctant to leave the room with Mvula, but he pulled her by the arm and once they were in the other room Mkhize's friend heard her cry out.
When the friend, Sthembile Mkhize, walked into the other room she found Mvula with his hand on Mkhize’s neck. He banged her head five to seven times against the wall before she fell to the ground. When she was down he stomped on her head and face with his foot multiple times before fleeing.
Through his Legal Aid defence, Mvula presented his personal circumstances, asking the court to consider them accumulatively as substantial and compelling to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence.
His personal circumstances were that he was unmarried and had a child who had died last year in July.
He has no previous convictions or pending cases and completed his matric in 2010 but could not further his studies due to financial constraints.
He has spent a year and four months in prison. Mvula, through his defence, conceded that he had been convicted of a serious offence but asked that the court consider that he is a first offender and was fairly young.
Motala said that although Mvula was relatively young he is of sufficient age to accept the result and consequences of his actions.
“His personal circumstances pale in insignificance against the gravity of the offence.
“The accused has shown absolutely no remorse, pleaded not guilty, and refused to take responsibility for his actions.”
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