Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Western Cape High Court slammed the judiciary’s handling of protection orders after a woman was murdered by her husband.
The woman had complained about her husband breaching an order, but she was just handed another protection order.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Babsy Ntamehlo was found guilty of murdering his estranged wife, Nosicelo Tsipa, over a dispute about an RDP house.
“Tsipa’s body was found strangled, partially burnt, and buried in a shallow grave in Fisantekraal, near Durbanville,” NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said.
In his judgment, Judge Daniel Thulare had harsh words for the way in which Tsipa’s protection orders were handled by the relevant authorities.
“Where there was an existing protection order in her favour, and she approached the Bellville Magistrate’s Court again to complain against the abuse, the answer was not the simple issue of another protection order,” Thulare said.
“The true and appropriate answer was to hold the accused to account for the breach of the terms of the existing protection order.”
Thulare said the law did not envisage the issue of a multiplicity of protection orders to a victim, but rather the issue of protection – and, if breached, accountability and consequences should ensue.
“I do not understand the law to provide for judicial officers to contribute to a handbag, a drawer or kist full of protection orders,” he said.
He said:
Crime
In convicting Ntamehlo of premeditated murder, Thulare said he could not trace “an iota of evidence which is consistent with the innocence of the accused. The accused decided in advance and arranged in advance what he would do to Nosicelo”.
Ntamehlo’s threats, which came to fruition, were well-documented, as the State led the evidence of witnesses who were shown messages of the threats.
“The deceased had recordings, voice messages and WhatsApp messages, where the accused threatened to kill her. In one of the messages, he told her that ‘most people go missing and do not get to be buried by their relatives’. Fortunately, the deceased shared these messages with her brother and friends,” Ntabazalila said.
Ntamehlo had even told a friend: “I wish to strangle this [woman] to death around the early hours of the morning and burn her body next to the river close to us, my brother. I have had enough.”
A few days later, Tsipa’s body was found strangled, partially burnt, and buried in a shallow grave in Fisantekraal, near Durbanville.
Tsipa was effectively murdered by her husband because of a dispute over an RDP house. He wanted the house to himself, and wanted his wife out of the way.
The case has been postponed to 22 November for sentencing proceedings.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
