A former traffic officer was this week sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his mistress who he believed could have given him and his wife the HIV virus.
The high court in Port St John’s sentenced the 38-year-old Fanele Nxuseka for the murder of his then lover and added a further 12 years for kidnapping.
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said Nxuseka, who is married, had been in an abusive extramarital love relationship with the deceased. It is alleged that she did not disclose to him that she was on antiretroviral treatment (ARVs).
“Nxuseka discovered on his own that his girlfriend was HIV-positive, and believed that she might have infected him and his wife,” said Tyali.
The court heard that two years ago, on May 24, he went to the girlfriend’s home in the Ngobozana area in Lusikisiki and demanded that she leaves with him. The deceased had left her cellphone with her sister and had apparently told her family she might not come back alive.
When she did not return home, her family searched for her. The deceased lifeless body was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the neighbouring Mmangweni village.
Nxuseka was arrested the following day.
“After state advocate Mkhuseli Ntaba closed the prosecution’s case, which included the evidence of Nxuseka’s friend to whom he confided that he had discovered that his girlfriend was on ARVs, Nxuseka chose not to take the witness stand in his defence,” said Tyali.
Eastern Cape director of public prosecutions Barry Madolo applauded the work of the prosecutor and investigating officer in ensuring that gender-based violence is punished, even when the perpetrator is a law-enforcement official.
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