Durban - A 21-year-old Estcourt man has been sent to prison for 10 years for killing his father with a panga because he said his father had abused him for most of his life.
Qhubekoni Ndawonde pleaded guilty in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday.
His legal counsel, advocate Pauline Andrews, argued in mitigation of sentence that Ndawonde had repeatedly reported his father’s abuse to the police, who told him they could not get involved in a domestic affair and sent him away.
“Had the police become involved, this tragedy might have never happened,” Acting Judge P Singh said in handing down sentence. He admonished the police for failing the young man.
Ndawonde slashed his father, Bhekubani, four times with a panga in December, saying he had snapped after years of continued abuse.
Still bearing the sjambok scars from his father’s beatings, he said that when he was a child, his father abused him so cruelly that at times he was forced to hide at neighbours’ homes.
The final straw came in December when Ndawonde bought new shoes for his younger sisters, aged 9 and 12, and his unemployed father criticised him and demanded to know where the money was for food.
Ndawonde was the family’s breadwinner.
He said he did not know what came over him, but when his father yelled at him for buying the shoes, he exploded and grabbed the panga.
He said he slashed his father without even realising what he was doing, or how many blows he had struck.
The post-mortem report indicated four wounds, mostly to the chest and some as deep as the backbone.
Shocked by what he had done, Ndawonde immediately turned himself over to his grandmother. The police were called and he was arrested.
Showing remorse for his actions, he said he had made a mistake.
The court found that the long-standing abuse Ndawonde suffered at the hands of his father and the gross provocation he was subjected to over the years and on the day of the murder, constituted substantial and compelling circumstances.
“You must have been sent into a rage to commit this act,” the acting judge told Ndawonde, sentencing him to 15 years’ imprisonment, five years of which were suspended.
“Causing the death of your father will remain with you for the rest of your life.”
The defence was happy with sentence. They initially asked for a sentence not exceeding 12 years. The State had asked for the minimum prescribed sentence of 15 years.
Daily News