Durban - A NEWCASTLE man was under police guard in hospital after the body of a strangled woman reported to be his girlfriend was discovered.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said they were investigating a case of murder.
“It is alleged on March 14 at 10am, a 20-year-old woman was strangled to death by a known suspect on Hardwick Street in Newcastle. A 21-year-old suspect was admitted to hospital after he felt sick. He is under police guard.”
Newcastle Police Corporate Communications Officer Lizzy Arumugam was quoted in the Newcastle Advertiser saying that the man allegedly had a fight with his girlfriend while they were in town.
Arumugam told the community newspaper that the man’s aunt said he left home on March 13 to go to town. He returned late that evening, and when questioned said that he had been robbed.
She said the man allegedly started vomiting later that night, and was taken to hospital. His family then searched his room and found a letter in which he apologised for killing his girlfriend, and detailed where her body was.
In another incident this week, a 25-year-old woman was found raped and stabbed multiple times in a bushy area in Phoenix.
In January, Sphamandla Zakhele Ngcobo, 26, handed himself over to KwaDukuza police after being on the run for two months following the murder of his girlfriend, Nomcebo Magudulela, 36.
She was left for dead outside her KwaDukuza home last year after Ngcobo allegedly stabbed her multiple times.
In November, IOL reported that a Durban woman had been found dead in her flat with cable ties around her neck. A 37-year-old man who she knew was arrested and charged with her murder.
In October, Richard Zulu, 52, was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his girlfriend, Zameka Rhafuza, 33, in Verulam.
Professor Nirmala Gopal, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Programme of Criminology and Forensic Studies, said the country seemed to be losing the war against gender-based violence.
“The scourge of violence against women has a history that predates the 21st Century, but instead of the South African society witnessing a decrease we are witnessing an increase. One would expect that in a democratic country that boasts some of the most progressive rights and concomitant legislative frameworks, the extent would decrease,” she said.
Gopal said the age of victims and “perpetrators of this horrendous crime” was random, and South Africans of all ages fell prey.
“Some critical questions society should be encouraged to ask: What obstacles persist in society that deter us from intervening successfully? Why are politicians not invested in wanting this crime halted? Is the political will absent because of the perception that their voices will emasculate men in general? Is it because they don’t care about the masses affected by GBV, or is it that they want to perpetuate violence through their lack of will?”
anelisa.kubheka@inl.co.za
Daily News