Tabita a ‘beacon of hope ’ for survivors
● Port Elizabeth doctor Mkhuseli Boto gets 10 years for shooting wife
When Dr Tabita Boto woke up yesterday morning, she told herself “today is going to be great ”— and it was.
Yesterday marked a fresh start for the mother-of-three as her estranged husband was sentenced to a decade behind bars for trying to kill her.
For Dr Mkhuseli Boto, however, his desperate bids for freedom — three failed bail applications, numerous versions of events and then an argument that his medical skills were needed to help fight Covid-19 — were finally silenced when the Port Elizabeth Regional Court found him to be a danger, and someone who needed to be removed from society for a very long time.
Tabita’s battle along with the state to have her husband imprisoned lasted the better part of a year.
And now, the effective 10year prison sentence has been lauded as “a beacon of hope” for survivors of abuse.
Despite various setbacks, Tabita’s tenacity never faded.
She has since relaunched her medical career in East London.
“It is such a relief that this is finally over. God is good,” she said after hearing the news.
At 36, she had been forced to start her life from scratch.
Tabita was shot point-blank in the face at the family’s upmarket Summerstrand home on August 31.
She was left bleeding on the floor as Boto walked to his bedroom, closed the door and attempted to take his own life with an insulin overdose.
Boto was arrested nine days after the shooting at the couple’s Brighton Drive home and charged with attempted murder.
While he maintained that the firearm was discharged accidentally, it was the fact that he had then left the bleeding woman on the floor despite being a medical professional that prosecutor Benedict Wilson took particular issue with.
He said it could therefore not be argued that Boto, who was not even willing to assist the mother of his children, should be given a non-custodial sentence so that he could use his skills in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Wilson said the incident had caused Tabita severe psychological damage that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Magistrate Thobile Jikela agreed.
Tabita said she was pleased with the sentence.
“I still can’t believe it,” she said, adding that she had been at work when she was informed of the sentence.
“I have renewed hope in the justice system of this country. There are still so many good people in this world.”
On the back of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent remarks about gender-based violence, Jikela said the wrong message would be sent out if he upheld the defence’s calls for correctional supervision.
“The court needs to send out a strong message that this type of behaviour cannot and won’t be tolerated,” he said.
Jikela also found that Boto had shown no remorse and instead tried to create the impression that his wife was a liar.
Tabita’s lawyer, Joanne Anthony-Gooden, a pioneer in the fight against gender-based violence in Nelson Mandela Bay, was ecstatic with the sentence.
The regional court has the discretion to impose a sentence of up to 15 years’ imprisonment for attempted murder.
But the court had to take into consideration Boto’s clean record to date, the fact that he had young children, and that he had already been behind bars for almost a year.
“Sadly, women continue to be subject to horrific acts of domestic violence on a daily basis,” Anthony-Gooden said.
“This is nothing new in the South African context.
“More so in lockdown, where we have been forced to remain with our abusers in very trying times.
“This sentence is a welcome change and must be seen as a beacon of hope to domestic violence survivors.
“Speak out. Be heard.” Advocate Maggie Tserere, a deputy director for prosecutions for sexual offences and community affairs, said: “We believe this sentence will go a long way in dissuading wouldbe offenders from perpetuating all forms of violence against women and children.”
Gender activist and Masimanyane Women’s Right’s International executive director Dr Lesley Ann Foster begrudgingly welcomed the sentence.
“I suppose it is fair,” Foster said.
“Sentences need to be seen as a deterrent and the best deterrent would be life in prison for those who commit gender-based violence.”
She said the effectiveness of sentences would also require that the sentenced person served the entire sentence and not only part thereof.
“[Boto] might go to prison but then be released after three years [and] seeing that he is a doctor he might even get a lot of sympathy,” Foster said.
The couple had been in the process of an acrimonious divorce, spurred on by allegations from Boto that Tabita had been having an affair.
After the shooting, and when she was finally discharged from hospital, Tabita packed her bags to be with her family in East London — and to start afresh with her three young children.
Having once lived a comfortable life with Boto, who owned several properties and fancy cars — now the subject of forfeiture applications — she had been left almost penniless.
When her mother died, she struggled to find the means to give her a dignified funeral.
But she remained adamant that she was much richer because not only had she survived — she was now ready to thrive.
Boto is expected to bring an application for leave to appeal against his sentence, which has been provisionally set down for July 14.