Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court is set to hear a triple murder case.
Msizeli Gaga is charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Simbongile Gxabagxaba, 32, her boyfriend, Isaac Ndizeye, and her 11-year-old son, Simbonile Gxabagxaba.
Gaga also faces a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm for attacking his girlfriend, Nomfaneleko Zwedala, with a crowbar, and a further two charges of arson and two charges of attempted murder.
It is alleged that Gaga, on the evening of March 10, 2017, set alight two shacks in the Kosovo informal settlement, which resulted in the deaths of three people.
It is the State’s case that Gaga had previously been in a relationship with Gxabagxaba and after they broke up she entered into a relationship with Ndizeye, while Gaga entered a relationship with Zwedala.
Gxabagxaba, mom to two boys aged 11 and 14, was socialising with Gaga and others when Ndizeye joined them.
“The accused was unhappy about the relationship between Gxabagxaba and Ndizeye and felt that she had ‘eaten’ his money and was now with ‘a foreigner’,” the court papers stated.
Gaga left the gathering and went home to his girlfriend, Zwedala.
“He was angry and aggressive and expressed his intentions to go to Gxabagxaba, saying that he wanted his money,” court papers said. Zwedala tried to stop him, but he attacked her with a crowbar, the papers said. She let him go and he then left the premises. It is alleged that Gaga went back to Gxabagxaba’s home and set the shack alight, while Gxabagxaba, her son and Ndizeye were sleeping inside. The three died as a result of smoke inhalation and burns.
Gxabagxaba's older son, Simamkele, was in a nearby shack with the owner of that shack, Siyabonga Konono. That home also burnt down as a result of the arson attack. Simamkele and Konono survived.
Today, in another case, sentencing proceedings for Lloyd Simbarashe begin after was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Nikita Lewis, while she was hiding out at a domestic violence and abuse care centre.
Simbarashe tracked her down and killed her on October 9, 2015. Lewis was stabbed 34 times.
The Western Cape High Court highlighted the increase in intimate femicide cases in South Africa during Jason Rohde’s sentencing last week. Rohde was sentenced to an effective 20 years behind bars for killing his wife, Susan, and staging the murder as a suicide.
Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe said it was undeniable that society was experiencing high levels of crimes against women.
“It is an important duty of the courts, in our role as the justice system, to impose appropriate sentences, particularly where women are murdered in the context of marriages, their relationships and their homes,” she said.
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