Stock image of a gavel in front of law book. Image: priestfevar via Flickr
Stock image of a gavel in front of law book. Image: priestfevar via Flickr
The Mpumalanga division of the High of South Africa, sitting in Mbombela, has sentenced a man to life in prison on Monday, 6 March 2023, after he murdered his father.
Siphamandla Gift Khumalo, 28, stabbed his father, Bheki Eric Khumalo, 47, in the neck with a knife while he was conducting business in Ermelo, also in Mpumalanga.
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Background
Siphamandla, who lived with Bheki and his now-widow in Mayflower, pleaded gulity to the murder. In his plea, he informed the Mpumalanga court that his relationship with his father deteriorated when his father refused to support his ambitions to become a musician.
“His father [Bheki] wanted him to pursue a career in engineering. As a result, the accused felt that the deceased was a stumbling block towards his dream career and then left his family home in Mayflower to Ermelo, where the deceased was conducting business,” National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson for Mpumalanga, Monica Nyuswa, said in a statement.
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“He armed himself with a knife and waited for the deceased to arrive, then produced a knife and fatally stab him in the neck,” she added.
Sentencing proceedings in Mpumalanga court
Before the life sentence was handed down, the deceased’s wife submitted a victim impact statement. In it, she told the court that she was now a widow and that the community and late husband’s family suspected her of colluding with the son to kill her husband.
She also told the Mpumalanga court that her husband was the sole breadwinner and that now her “life has become a nightmare”.
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“Judge Greyling Coetzer agreed with the state [advocate Eugene Mathebula] and found no compelling and substantial reasons to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence, she sentenced Khumalo to life imprisonment,” concluded Nyuswa.
