Convicted murderer and rapist, Lungile Nxelelwa will serve a life sentence for his crimes. 33-year old Nxelelwa has been handed two life sentences for the gruesome rape and murder of his girlfriend, 27-year-old Keneilwe Pule, in Sebokeng in 2019.
The High Court sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, east of Johannesburg, also found him guilty of attempted murder. Nxelelwa is said to have cut up Pule’s body, using a grinder, before eventually setting it on fire. He had also raped her using a broken bottle.
The court found Lungile Nxelelwa guilty of murder, rape and attempted murder. Judge William Karam found that Nxelelwa did not show any remorse. He also said that he presented no mitigating factors to dissuade him from handing down the maximum sentence for murder and rape.
“On count 1 murder, you are sentenced to life imprisonment, count 2, rape you are sentenced to life imprisonment. Count 3, you are sentenced to 5 years imprisonment by operation of the law the life sentences run concurrently and the sentence on 3 runs concurrently with the life sentence.”
Nxelelwa sentenced to life imprisonment after killing girlfriend:
The court heard that Nxelelwa found his then live-in girlfriend of three years, Keneilwe Pule, at a friend’s house, where he assaulted her. He then forced her to go with him to his place where he continued to assault her.
The family was only alerted to the tragedy by the smell of fire in the early hours of the morning. It appears that Nxelelwa had assaulted Pule even after she was dead.
Nxelelwa, who did not have previous convictions, opted not to take the stand. While he had blamed his behaviour on alcohol and sleep deprivation, the judge said testimony from neighbours painted Nxelelwa as a cruel man. While Pule’s family was satisfied with the judgment, her aunt Manama Seakga says she still has so many questions.
“From Orange Farm to Everton what happened? That one we need to get real closure. I think we must hear what he did the whole time until the following morning at 2 o’clock when we could smell that it’s burning inside the house. Whatever he did, if you see the weapons in the house, the blood.”
The judgment has been welcomed by organisations working with gender issues such as the Commission for Gender Equality.
The commission’s spokesperson Javu Baloyi says the court has sent a strong message that gender-based violence can no longer be tolerated.
“We believe this sentencing will go a long way in ensuring that victims and survivors of GBV and intimate partner killings do go report issues of this nature, it begins to show that our judicial system cannot continue to tolerate issues of this nature, women and children are dying at the hands of men day in and day out, GBV has become a pandemic, we need all sectors of society to work together,” says Baloyi.
