The two life sentences handed out to Lungile Nxelelwa for the rape and murder of his girlfriend in 2019 have been welcomed.
Nxelelwa raped, killed 27-year-old Keneilwe Pule in Sebokeng, Gauteng, desecrating her body with a grinder before torching her.
He was sentenced in the high court sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
The judge presiding over the matter said Nxelelwa had stated his intention to kill Pule on numerous occasions.
Pule’s relatives were in court and they welcomed the sentence.
“Lungile is not right to live with other people. People like Lungile should be in jail,” the family says.
Pule’s aunt and family spokesperson, only identified as mmeManana, says the trial has reopened old wounds.
MmeManana says they still don’t exactly know how Nxelelwa killed Pule, among others.
“How did he kill Lungile..because there were kettle, ropes, grinders and knobkirries. We don’t whether he hacked her or he poisoned her and a lot of blood in the house,” she says.
“People like Lungile do not deserve to live with the people. Lungile is not right is person to live with the people. He is a giant. He can kill a person and rape him…rape him..so many things…how could Lungile rape a dead body…it’s not right.. it’s not right,” she says.
She says Nxelelwa’s mother is also scared of him. “Umama kaLungile naye I think..she is at peace,” she adds.
Rights group, #NotInMyName, has also welcomed Nxelelwa’s sentencing, describing it as long overdue.
“We believe South Africa needs more judgments like this in order to deter perpetrators and would-be perpetrators. We want sentences which deter the perpetrators of femicide, which is a scourge hounding our nation,” says the organisation’s general secretary, Themba Masango.
“We salute the courts, investigators and the justice system in this case for giving Keneilwe a voice, even in death. Our chant has been “Nxelelwa must rot in jail,” adds Masango.
The Gender Commission says Nxelelwa’s sentencing puts an end to one of the most traumatic cases of gender-based violence and femicide ever witnessed and heard of in the country.
“The Gender Commission believes this sentence will send a strong and unequivocal message that the judicial system is taking the fight against gender-based violence seriously,” the organisation adds.
Nxelelwa wasn’t happy with his sentence and lodged an appeal.
In the court has denied Lungile Nxelelwa's appeal.
He is sentenced to two life imprisonment for rape and murder of his girlfriend, Keneilwe Pule. #VOWFMNEWS
A young woman was raped in Lephalale, Limpopo, on Wednesday as she was reportedly hitchhiking near the bridge on R33 (VaalWater Road).
The victim was hitch-hiking to Modimolle at around 12h00 when a man unknown to her joined her and pretended to be hitchhiking too.
He then allegedly grabbed her and started to hit her with stones before tying her up and raping her.
The alleged perpetrator immediately fled the scene after the committing the crime.
The victim told police that she suspects the perpetrator to be a Zimbabwean because of his dialect.
As a search for the suspect continues, police are appealing to anyone who may have information on the matter to report to the Lephalale Community Service Centre on: 079 8896247, crime stop on: 0860010111, or to the nearest police station. – Report from Waterberg FM news.
A 22-year-old man from Ntshawini near KwaDukuza, in KwaZulu-Natal, has been sentenced to life and one year in jail for raping and robbing an 83-year-old woman in 2018.
Siyabonga Mkhwanazi was known to the victim and was friends with her grandchildren.
He raped and assaulted the wheelchair-bound 83-year-old after he entered her home in the early hours of the morning.
After throwing her off her bed – he banged her head several times on the cement, raped her and then fled with her R27, which was in her bag.
She was rushed to hospital for the physical and gynaecological injuries sustained.
She also received counselling from the KwaDukuza Thuthuzeka Centre.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority in KwaZulu-Natal, in a victim statement submitted in court, the 83-year-old says no words can describe the trauma she suffered from the incident.
She says she had trusted her assailant and had considered him as her grandchild and he took advantage of her vulnerability.
Mkhwanazi has denied guilt.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in KwaZulu-Natal, Elaine Zungu, has welcomed the conviction and sentence against him.
Zungu says she hopes the sentence will serve as a lesson that gender-based violence will not be tolerated in the province.
“We urge communities, especially leaders, to assist in addressing GVB related issues through education sessions, dialogues and stakeholder engagements with the relevant government departments,” concludes Zungu.
The 35-year-old man accused of raping and killing 21-year-old Phuti Ramara is due to appear in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
The suspect was nabbed on December 28 while on his way to Soweto from Tembisa.
He had apparently planned to cross the border to Lesotho.
The suspect was the last person to be seen with Ramara before her naked body was discovered at an open field in Protea Glen Extension 31 in the early hours of December 7.
It was suspected that she had been strangled with her pants.
Below is an interview with the Ramara family on the murder.– Report by Jozi FM’s Moshe Maswanganyi
The ANC in Alexandra, Gauteng, has confirmed that one of its councilors has been arrested for rape.
Alex Reporter understands that he is a PR councilor in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.
ANC secretary in Alexandra, Banele Sangcozi, says they want the accused councilor to step down.
“If he fails to step down, we call on the upper structures to immediately suspend him and institute disciplinary proceedings against him.”
Meanwhile, the ANC Joburg spokesperson Sasa Manganye says they stand with the victim.
“The ANC stands with the victim and calls authorities ensure that alleged misogynist faces the full might of the law as we believe in the fairness and unbiasedness of the justice system of our country.”
DA Joburg spokesperson on Gender & the LGBTQIA+, Botshelo Moloisane, says they want the councilor suspended.
“We are saddened and shocked to learn about the arrest, this comes at a time where the country is battling GBV and femicide. It is appalling that the accused has acted in such a manner. We will ask the Joburg council to write to MEC Lebogang Maile to suspend the councillor without pay till the case is concluded. Not only has he broken his oath of office to but his code of conduct as an elected councillor.”
Police spokesperson Sergeant Simphiwe Mbatha says he is not aware of the matter.
The accused is, nonetheless, expected to appear before the Alexandra Magistrate Court on Monday.
“As I said from the get go – I was set on setting the record straight and clearing my name. One part is done, the next part is to make sure that there is a civil claim,” DA Gauteng leader, Solly Msimanga, has told Local Voices while reacting to the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision not to prosecute him for sexual harassment.
Msimanga says he has instructed his lawyers to proceed with the lawsuit against former DA Gauteng MPL, Nkele Molapo, who had accused him of sexual harassment.
The former Tshwane Mayor is confident that a court will rule in his favour in the lawsuit against Molapo.
He says after the civil claim – he will publish the real story behind the accusations. He says he has been receiving numerous calls from people who find themselves in the same boat as him.
“Because I think a lot of people in South Africa need to know what really happens and what is really happening. I mean this is not the first time that a political figure would be wrongfully accused and sometimes things just turn to die without it being followed. Families are destroyed and lives are destroyed. I am going to ensure that that’s not the case.”
Msimanga says false sexual harassment and rape allegations are problematic as they take away from the real cases that need attention. He says he wants the lawsuit against Molapo to deter other women from laying bogus claims against men.
“It is these bogus cases that go unabated that we now need to make sure that as much as we are talking about not in my name and wanting men to behave in a particular way, we should also be condemning women who are using this pandemic in South Africa for their own selfish and stupid personal gains or personal vendettas. This is something I am definitely not going to let go until a lesson is learnt and over and above that – we are going to make sure that anybody who thinks about doing this in future will have to think twice because there will be consequences.”
The community of Protea Glen, in Soweto, will this evening hold a candlelight prayer service in honour of a 21-year-old woman who was brutally murdered.
The community is still reeling from shock following the grim discovery.
The murder occurred amid a nationwide 16 Days of Activism Campaign for No Violence Against Women and Children.
According to the police, Phuthi was beaten, raped and strangled to death with her pants.
She was identified by her tattoo of a tiger on her neck, a flower tattoo on her right leg and her name on her hand.
It is suspected that she was killed by people she knew.
Her family is calling for justice.
ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) Secretary in ward 135, Nelisiwe Yende, says the candlelight prayer session in Ramara’s honour will be held at 10217 Mount Cash Street Ext 12, Protea Glen at 6pm.
Ramara will be laid to rest on Sunday.
Police spokesperson, Vincent Mashiteng, says no arrests have yet been made in the matter. – Report by Jozi FM News Editor Moshe Maswanganyi
The Mthembu family in the Dukumbe area of Mkhuze, in KwaZulu-Natal, is still reeling from shock following the sexual assault and brutal murder of 4-year-old, Bandile Nyaweni.
The boy’s aunt, Nomusa Mthembu, says the incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon.
The suspect has a child with one of the Mthembu sisters and lives nearby the home of his victim’s mother.
They are renting rooms in the same area.
One eyewitness has told the family that they heard the child’s screams emanating from the man’s place and went to inspect.
“When they got there, the man chased them away,” Mthembu says.
The child’s grandmother says she still cannot believe the tragedy as the incident happened after Bandile left her place.
She wants the suspect to spend the rest of his life in jail.
However, she does not trust the local police and says what breaks her heart even further is the knowledge that the suspect could be released from jail soon.
Sexual assault on boys is a rare in the Mkhuze area.
Deputy Mayor Municipality of Jozini, Ncamsile Zulu, has visited the family to convey the municipality’s condolences.
Zulu also expressed shock over the unusual incident, saying she hopes it would never happen again. – Philani Zulu is the News Editor of Maputaland FM
Her mother allegedly only reported the incident to the police two days later.
A Baragwanath Hospital medical practitioner, who attended to the child’s injuries, had already alerted law enforcement authorities to the crime.
Police suspect that baby Nyiko may have suffered previous abuse at the hands of her stepfather and the matter was never reported. – Report by Jozi FM’s Moshe Maswanganyi
