A Durban bus service driver will be sentenced in the Ntuzuma Magistrates Court for shooting and killing his mistress through a closed door that she refused to open. Picture: Anelisa Kubheka
Durban — The Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court will hand down sentence in a murder case similar to that of Paralympian and convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius.
Pistorius is currently serving a 13-year-and-five-month prison sentence for the 2013 murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp whom he shot through the bathroom door of his Pretoria East home on Valentine’s Day.
On Friday, magistrate T Nomvungu in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court convicted bus driver Siyazi Vincent Gumede of the murder of his mistress Zinhle Mtshali.
Mtshali was shot and killed through the main door of her home by Gumede in 2021.
During the trial, State Prosecutor N Malinga set out to prove dolus eventualis which speaks to the principle that a person can be convicted of murder if they foresaw the possibility of their actions resulting in the death of someone but continued regardless.
At the time of her murder Mtshali was in her house with her 16-year-old son Wandile Mhlongo.
The court heard that Gumede, employed by Durban bus service Tansnat, was having an extra-marital affair with Mtshali and that the home he shared with his wife was just two houses from that of his mistress.
It also heard how there was a history of abuse in the relationship, and that Mtshali was afraid of the accused.
It also emerged during the trial that Gumede had once placed a bullet in the palm of Mtshali’s hand, made her close her hand into a fist, and told her the bullet was meant for her.
Malinga led evidenceby calling five witnesses, them being Mtshali’s son, Nonhlanhla Mtshali, who is the deceased’s sister; pathologist Dr Salona Prahad; forensics expert Thamashm Govende;r and Mtshali’s domestic worker Nokukhanya Mthembu.
Mtshali’s son told the court how on the day of the murder Gumede had come to their home at 4am demanding to be let in.
“The previous night they (Mtshali and Gumede) fought and the accused hit my mother with his fist. That morning when he came to our house he wanted my mother to open the door but she said she was too scared to open it for him.
“I begged her to open the door but she said she was too afraid to. The accused said she should open the door or he would shoot her through it,” he said.
Mhlongo explained to the court that his mother was talking to Gumede while standing in front of the closed door.
“He fired a shot while she was standing there telling him she was too afraid to open the door.”
Pathologist Prahad told the court Mtshali had died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Forensic expert Govender testified on the crime scene which she had compiled an album on.
Magistrate Nomvungu is set to sentence Gumede on November 6.
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Daily News