Bhisho manager jailed for murder

High-ranking Cogta official shot girlfriend in jealous rage

ASENIOR Bhisho government official who shot and killed his 26-year-old girlfriend after spotting her with a 17year-old youth in Sweetwaters three years ago has been handed a lengthy jail term.

The provincial cooperative governance and traditional affairs’ (Cogta) assistant manager, Lelethu Ngqola, was yesterday sentenced to an effective 18 years in jail by the Mdantsane Magistrate’s Court.

The court had earlier found him guilty of shooting and murdering his then girlfriend, Sisanda Maku, in a jealous rage in July 2013.

Maku had been dating Ngqola for four months. She was visiting a friend in Sweetwaters outside King William’s Town when the gruesome incident took place.

Maku had been working as a law enforcement officer at the Buffalo City Metro at the time of her death.

Maku, from King William’s Town, was shot in the head at point blank range with Ngqola’s licensed .38 special revolver while attending an initiation graduation ceremony at a friend’s house.

At the time, the Daily Dispatch reported that Maku had been dropped off at a hiking spot in King by her father as she was meant to travel to East London.

She decided not to take the trip and instead attended the ceremony at a friend’s house in Sweetwaters. She was later called by Ngqola who asked for directions to the house.

When Ngqola could not find his way to the house, Maku and her friend’s teenage brother decided to look for him as he was getting lost.

When they spotted him sitting in his car, Maku advanced towards him, but Ngqola pulled out his gun and fired shots towards the youth who then ran away.

Eyewitnesses said when Maku tried to explain that the boy was just accompanying her to look for Ngqola, he held her close, placed a gun to her head and fired the fatal shot.

Realising what he had done, he loaded Maku into his car and sped off to Grey Hospital. He also went to Maku’s West Bank home to inform her father that “she had been involved in an accident”.

He was later arrested while waiting at the hospital that same evening and charged with murder and attempted murder.

Maku’s father, Pumezo, said despite the trial dragging on for over three years, the family was pleased with the sentence handed to Ngqola. —