How I burnt my lover
Soldier tells court he strangled and killed cheating girlfriend
SOLDIER Zwelabantu Ngubeni strangled his girlfriend Zestah September and set her body alight because she was cheating on him.
Ngubeni, 31, is accused of killing September on New Year’s Eve.
Her mutilated, burning body was found along the N12 near the Lenasia military base, south of Johannesburg.
Ngubeni, an SA National Defence Force member, applied for bail at the Westonaria Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
In an affidavit read by his lawyer Collen Matombuye, Ngubeni said he learnt that September was cheating on him and he then confronted her but she promised to end the relationship.
He said on the day of the murder September, 27, said she wanted to go out with the other lover.
“She started raising her voice, she said ‘even if I date him it does not matter because you are always [away]. You can also date him if you want ’… I followed her to the bedroom … I started stammering in a high pitched [voice],” he said.
Ngubeni then asked her if she was sleeping with the other man.
“She said ‘if I sleep with him so what? I enjoy being with him’. I could no longer speak as the stammering accelerated and I lost control. I wrestled with her.
“[At the end] she lay motionless underneath me. I realised that both my hands were holding firmly around her neck.
“I tried to shake her and called her name but she could not move. I realised she was dead.”
Ngubeni said he sat and thought about what he did for more than an hour.
“I did not plan to kill [her]. I still love her. My actions were triggered by her provocation.”
Ngubeni said he then drove to a petrol station in September’s car.
“I bought cigarettes and R50 petrol … When I arrived home she was bleeding through the nose.
“I [later] loaded her body into the boot of her car. I drove over the bridge at the N12 robots to an open veld.
“I took her out and threw her on the ground. I took the petrol and poured it on her body. I lit her body and left.”
Ngubeni said he drank a lot of alcohol to get the courage. He said he attempted to commit suicide
“She raised her voice; she said ‘even if I date him it does not matter’
by cutting his wrists with a razor and hanging himself.
Ngubeni said he spent New Year’s Eve at September’s house before he reported her missing and later admitted to police that he killed her.
Magistrate Abraham Eeden refused Ngubeni bail, saying he was a danger to himself and the community.
September’s mother, Mono September, said Ngubeni was an animal.
“It was not the first time he strangled [her],” she said.