Cape Town - A man who killed his wife and dismembered her body has been handed a life sentence by the Western Cape High Court.
In handing down sentence, Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe described Goodman Nobade, 57, from Khayelitsha as “a heartless monster”.
Nobade was convicted on June 10 of murdering Agnes Mzisa, 37, in April 2017 and defeating the ends of justice by dismembering her body. The couple had a stormy marriage, and not even an interim protection order against Nobade in September 2016 could save his wife.
“Your wife stayed in the marriage as she must have thought you would repent and have a happy marriage. Horrifically, in the final curtain call, you chopped her up in the home you shared and discarded her body piece by piece.
“The evidence of the state pathologist was that the cutting up of your wife would have taken considerable force and precision – to cut through her body parts, through bones and, ultimately, sever her limbs.
“In refuse bags you threw her like she was nothing more than refuse and followed up with a catch-me-if-you-can attitude and a cat-and-mouse game as to where you had thrown her remains. You clearly have no soul. This is the conduct of a heartless monster.” Judge Salie-Hlope said.
During the trial Nobade told the court that he had dismembered his wife, partly due to women's rights.
“I then realised I had killed her and she is a woman and women are having too much rights and if I report this to community members I will be killed, and if I go to the police I will be arrested. I also thought of my age - I am very old to go to prison and die there,” he previously said.
He admitted to dismembering her body and then dumping her parts at the TR Section, at some bushes in Baden Powell and in a small river behind the N2.
He eventually handed himself over to police after his niece and police went to his home in Khayelitsha in search of Msizi.
Although counsel for Nobade had argued that the Judge must take into account that his lowered perception of women and their subservient role to men emanated from a cultural perception, Judge Gayaat-Salie in her sentencing added that there was no civil society which would condone violence against women, the murder of women and the dismemberment of their bodies after the termination of their lives.
Provincial spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Eric Ntabazalila welcomed the sentence.
“As the NPA, we welcome this sentence as the scourge of feminism is slowly gripping the Western Cape. This is a second strong sentence in two weeks where the NPA has successfully prosecuted a husband for killing his wife in a gruesome manner.
“Our plans of having dedicated and experienced prosecutors prosecuting cases of abuse against women and children are paying off.”