Woman dies after ex sets her alight
Former boyfriend accused of burning Ngcobo woman to death
A man who is accused of dousing his girlfriend with petrol and then setting her alight is due in court on Thursday.
Viwe Dalingozi, who is from the Eastern Cape, succumbed to her injuries.
The incident took place in a Johannesburg flat on Friday.
Police confirmed on Wednesday that Dalingozi’s 27-year-old ex-boyfriend had been arrested and charged with arson and murder.
He is due to appear in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court on Thursday.
Police spokesperson Captain Xoli Mbele said the man had been arrested in Mokapane village in Limpopo.
“We apprehended him at around 10pm on Tuesday. He had some burn wounds on an arm and a leg,” said Mbele.
The man was arrested in 2012 on suspicion of smashing a car that belonged to his then-girlfriend in Limpopo.
“The girlfriend later withdrew the case,” said Mbele.
The death of Ngcobo-born Viwe Dalingozi, 31, has left her family devastated.
Her mother, Lulama Dalingozi, said she would never forget the sight of her youngest child, and only daughter, lying in a Johannesburg hospital bed, burnt beyond recognition.
Dalingozi was apparently with friends when her ex-boyfriend arrived at her flat.
Her family said they received a call in the early hours on Friday.
A distraught Fezile Dalingozi, Viwe’s uncle, said he had spoken to her while she was still on fire in the flat.
The entire family rushed to Johannesburg, but it was too late. She had already died.
Condemning violence against women, Eastern Cape social development MEC Dr Phumza Dyantyi said “repugnant acts of this nature” happened at an alarming rate in SA.
She would never forget the sight of her daughter lying in a Joburg hospital burnt beyond recognition