'A sad chapter has ended': Zolile Khumalo's parents
|Published
Thabani Mzolo in the Durban High Court. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo / African News Agency / ANA Thabani Mzolo in the Durban High Court. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo / African News Agency / ANA
Durban - THE parents of slain Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) student
Zolile Khumalo said closing the painful
chapter on 18 long months of tears,
questions and anticipation of justice,
felt like a load had been lifted off their
shoulders.
This was after Durban High Court Judge Nompumelelo Radebe handed down a life term to Thabani Mzolo for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Khumalo, 21.
The Khumalo family shed tears and exchanged hugs when Mzolo was sentenced.
Khumalo’s father, Comfort Khumalo, said it felt good to have closure, but the moment was also emotional.
“Although nothing could bring back our daughter, we are happy that the court saw right through his lies. The past 18 months have been trying times for our family.
“We expected a lot from our daughter. We hoped she would get an education and change our lives.
“That is never going to happen. We thank the police and the court for giving us and our daughter the justice that we deserve,” he said.
In convicting Mzolo, 27, this week, Judge Radebe found that Mzolo had planned and executed the murder. He had used a friend, Simiso Buthelezi, to gain access to the Lonsdale MUT student residence on May 1, 2018 where Khumalo lived.
Mzolo was also sentenced to 25 years for illegal possession of a firearm and three years for illegal possession
of ammunition. This sentence would run concurrently with the life sentence.
Judge Radebe yesterday emphasised that Mzolo had every opportunity to reconsider his plan, but because he wanted to vent, he continued with it.
“Despite her apologising to him, he still killed her for nothing. After killing her, he sat calmly, with her body about one metre away, and with no care in the world for what he had done. He took out his cellphone and phoned his friends. He told them that he could not get out of there because there were police everywhere, which shows that he himself was scared of dying, saying ‘I can’t go out there, they would kill me’,” said Judge Radebe.
The judge expressed concerns about the escalating number of gender-based violence cases, saying the courts had a duty to send out a strong message by imposing the harshest and the longest sentences.
“There is no law that says a woman cannot reject a man. People like him (Mzolo) paint all men with the same brush. The truth is that not all men are like that,” said Judge Radebe.
Mzolo’s attorney, Bhekokwakhe Dlamini, in mitigation of sentence, had asked the court to consider the apology Mzolo made during the trial, saying he had plans to marry Khumalo.
In his defence, Mzolo claimed that the firearm was Khumalo’s and that he took it from between her thighs. He claimed that it accidentally went off during a scuffle.
Dlamini said mitigating factors for the court to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence were that Mzolo had a 3-year-old daughter, was employed with an electrical company at the time of his arrest and was a first offender.
He was a student at MUT, studying electrical engineering, but had dropped out.
Judge Radebe criticised people like Mzolo who, despite calls by the police authorities for people to surrender illegal firearms and face no arrest, still kept illegal firearms.
“It becomes difficult for the police to link these firearms to the crimes committed previously, be it robbery or theft, because they have their serial numbers removed or changed. In this case, it is clear that he (Mzolo) had this firearm prior to this shooting,” she said.
MUT students sang and danced outside court in celebration of the sentence.