How soldier set alight dead lover
Soldier lied to family about girlfriend’s murder
“He is an animal. I took him in and regarded him as my son. I will never forgive him,” said a 59-year-old Soweto mother.
Her daughter, Zestah September, was brutally killed by her boyfriend who is a soldier in the national army.
South Gauteng High Court Judge Leicester Adams found Zwelabantu Themba Ngubeni guilty on four counts – murder, defeating the ends of justice, violating a corpse and the illegal possession of ammunition – yesterday.
Ngubeni had on a number of occasions, including on the day of the murder, accused Zestah, 27, of cheating on him.
Adams said Ngubeni, 32, intentionally killed Zestah on December 29 2015, then lied and deceived her family.
Ngubeni had spent time with Zestah’s family and had reported her missing to the police, despite knowing he had killed her.
Zestah’s mother Mono September said after the judgment: “We thought he only strangled her, but [she suffered] multiple injuries and a 45cm wound.
“It [the conviction] will never bring my daughter back no matter how many life sentences he gets.”
She said Ngubeni had deceived her and the rest of the family. “He lied to me, knowing exactly what he did. He took me for a fool for three days.
“I was with him. I comforted him, saying that she would come back.
“I even asked him to go report her missing to the police. I do not want to talk to him. We suffered a loss. My whole family has been devastated by the incident. My two daughters are not coping,” September said. However, she said she was happy with the court’s decision and that Ngubeni deserved it.
“I will never forget the condition my daughter was in. That will never go away. We have been to counselling but it does not help. This thing needs you to deal with the matter on your own,” she said.
Adams said although the cause of her death was not clear, it was his view that she had been cut very severely with a knife or another sharp instrument across the abdominal area and there were other deep wounds on the left hand side of her torso.
This wound, together with other injuries sustained by Zestah, probably caused her death, he said.
“Mr Ngubeni remained in the flat [in Protea] with the body overnight and during the course of the next day, without leaving the house. At about 7pm, he went to a petrol station where he bought petrol ...
“At 1am, on the morning of Thursday, the 31st of December 2015, Mr Ngubeni loaded the body into the car of the deceased and went to dump it in an open veld in Lenasia. There he poured petrol over the body and set it alight. He left the scene with the body still burning.”
Adams said in the days following Zestah’s death, Ngubeni weaved a tangled web of lies. He dismissed Ngubeni’s testimony as untruthful. The case resumes next month.