The Mthatha Regional Court in South Africa has sentenced a 45-year-old man to life imprisonment for violently r@ping his wife in front of their minor daughter.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in a statement on Friday, October 17, 2025 said the court further sentenced him to three years for assault, five years for violating a protection order and four years for causing a person to witness a s3xual offence.
The latter sentences were ordered to run concurrently with the life sentence.
Before the date of the incident, the couple and their three children stayed together at their home in KwaTshemese village near Mthatha.
There was a history of domestic violence between them, which propelled the wife to apply for a protection order against the husband. The protection order was granted by the court on 23 November 2022, prohibiting the husband from assaulting the wife and exposing their children to domestic violence.
On the evening of 01 January 2023, the intoxicated husband requested his wife to join him to sleep in a separate house within their homestead. When the wife refused, he got angry and left.
In anticipation of violence that would follow, the mother and her children locked the main door and ran into the bedroom and locked themselves inside.
The man came back in possession of a garden spade, broke into the house using the spade and entered the bedroom. He pushed the woman to the living room and ordered her to undress for them to have s3xual intercourse.
When the wife refused, he severely assaulted her with the sharp end of the spade, causing her serious head and body injuries. He then raped her in front of their daughter.
When the daughter tried to intervene, he also assaulted her. After the commission of the offences, they fled the scene. The victim was taken to the hospital where she had to be admitted for a week, during which she was also seen at the Mthatha Thuthuzela Care Centre (TCC), for counselling.
The husband managed to evade arrest until May 2023, when he was apprehended at his place of residence, while still trying to convince his wife to forgive him.
During the trial, he pleaded not guilty, denying all the charges against him without any plausible explanation.
State Advocate Luvuyo Komanisi led compelling evidence, including the complainants, the mother and daughter, and handed in the J88 depicting the extent of injuries inflicted by the accused.
For sentencing, the state handed in the victim impact statement as facilitated by court preparation officer (CPO), Ziyanda Fambaza.
The court found no compelling circumstances for deviating from the prescribed minimum sentences for husband and father, whom it described as “unrepentant and unremorseful”.
Welcoming the sentence, Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Barry Madolo, commended the collaborative work by police, TCC, CPO and the prosecutor in ensuring that justice is delivered for the victims of the crimes that are a combination of gender-based and domestic violence of the worst form.
Cases of this nature reaffirm the NPA’s commitment to ensuring that perpetrators are removed from our communities, the statement added.
