Durban — Plea proceedings are expected to continue in the Durban High Court on Wednesday where Bongani Sanele Mlambo stands charged with the murder of his girlfriend, who was stabbed multiple times at a Durban university’s outsourced residence.
Mlambo is alleged to have stabbed Xolile Mbatha, a Mangosuthu University of Technology final-year electrical engineering student, in July while in a bathroom at Ark Royal Residence on Mahatma Gandhi Road.
Last week, Mlambo appeared before Judge Sharmaine Balton for a plea. However, once Mlambo’s plea of guilty was read in, and once Judge Balton found out that the post-mortem report had not been filed, she adjourned the matter for such.
“It’s necessary for the accused to have a look at the post-mortem report before his plea can be accepted. Even before the plea can be completed it’s important that the accused is given the post-mortem report to look at because he is making admissions.”
Once the report had been filed, Judge Balton said she would require both the defence and State in their closing arguments to use case law in relation to murders committed out of anger or jealousy – crimes of passion. There was only a post-mortem certificate that had been filed.
According to the plea read in by Mlambo’s Legal Aid attorney, SB Madondo, Mlambo and his girlfriend had met on Facebook in 2018.
According to Mlambo, at the time that he had allegedly killed Mbatha, she had had a miscarriage, losing the twins she had told him she was carrying. He said it was not until 2021, when Mbatha started communicating (sending messages) with a male fellow congregant, that their relationship had experienced strain.
He explained that to aggravate the situation, after Mbatha had said that the man was only sending her Bible verses, the fellow congregant had apparently admitted to professing his love for Mbatha, and apologised, promising that it would stop.
However, in the plea where Mlambo admits to allegedly killing and stabbing Mbatha “multiple times”, his version of events was that Mbatha had told him that she was carrying twins, but after a few days she phoned to say she had had a miscarriage.
He said he had gone to comfort her; however, Mbatha had told him to leave and not set foot in her place again.
The second time he went back to her place of residence he had walked in. Mbatha had been in the bathroom and when he tried to enter it she had pushed the door.
Mlambo said he managed to get inside; however Mbatha shouted at him and at this point her friend walked in and asked him what he was doing there as Mbatha “no longer wanted him”.
It was then that he alleged he grabbed a knife on a table; however Mbatha fought him for it, even stabbing him.
He alleged that this angered him and he stabbed her “multiple times”.
Daily News