By Staff Reporter
South Africa- a 30-year-old man has been slapped with a 20-year jail term after he was found guilty of burning his girlfriend to death in 2018.
The convict, Mpho Thobane, who was then 27, set alight his girlfriend, Viwe Dalingozi with petrol after they allegedly had relationship arguments.
The court heard that the convict poured petrol on the 32-year-old woman, while she was asleep in their flat in the Johannesburg CBD, before setting her on fire.
It is also said that he then fled for Limpopo and was arrested by police just days later.
The deceased, Dalingozi suffered severe burnt wounds till her last breath and died two days after the gruesome attack.
In passing the sentence, magistrate Hombakazi Thwele said, ‘This is clearly a case of gender-based violence’, expressing sympathy towards Dalingozi’s family, which is still coming to terms with her murder.
“There is nothing I can say or do today to possibly comfort them for the tragic loss that they suffered. This is clearly a case of gender-based violence,” Magistrate Thwele said.
“The community deserves to live in a better world than this. A world in which a woman is able to move out of a relationship without fear of losing her life.”
“A world in which a woman’s life is valued by all and her fate is not in the hands of a man.”
