South African man gets life in prison for brutal machete attack on his ex

A man enraged by the termination of a relationship who used a machete to chop to death the mother of his children has been jailed for life in Mpumalanga.

Thulasizwe Mtholephi Kunene, 30, from Mangosuthu in Piet Retief, pleaded guilty and was convicted of housebreaking and murder, regional National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said on Monday.

The brutal attack happened after the termination of a relationship between himself and Thuli Mavuso.

“In his plea statement, he told the court that he and Mavuso had two children. At some stage, Mavuso terminated their relationship and fell in love with another man. This angered Kunene and he decided to kill her,” said Nyuswa.

Armed with a machete, he went to the house where Mavuso was with her new boyfriend in July 2019.

“He attacked her with the machete in the living room. He chopped her body several times and left her partially decapitated. He fled the scene and was arrested the next day, at work.”

Kunene told the court in mitigation that he was angered by the break-up and alleged threats from Mavuso’s boyfriend.

The prosecutor, senior state advocate Ashwin Poodhun, argued that Kunene showed no remorse for his actions, otherwise he would have called for help after realising he had made a mistake, instead of fleeing the scene and hiding the murder weapon.

Judge Hein Brauckmann said violence against women and children was a shameful human rights violation that knew no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth.

He sentenced Kunene to three years’ imprisonment for housebreaking and life for murder in the Mpumalanga high court in Breyten.

The sentences will run concurrently.

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