Infidelity cost Tshegofatso Pule and her baby’s lives

Infidelity is not just black and white, someone once said.

Marriages – even most steady relationships – have this lurking challenge of infidelity that continuously threatens peace and order, the sense of security that ought to be in the sanctity of a relationship of two.

This springs to mind again because a man stands accused of a crime so heinous, one must wonder if he has any capability to love.

Ntuthuko Ntokozo Shoba, 32, stands accused of being the mastermind in the shocking, spine-chilling murder of beauty consultant Tshegofatso Pule and their unborn baby.

ALSO READ: Tshegofatso Pule’s killer pleads guilty, gets 20 years in jail

Not only was there one attempt on her life, but two – and the second attempt was successful.

He allegedly did not want his wife to find out that his infidelities had led to a baby. But within a month, that baby would enter the earth outside of the mother’s womb.

This begs a very important question: why do we engage in activities when we lack the bravado to face the consequences of these choices and decisions?

Why engage in an extramarital affair and then make your lover the sacrificial lamb in your game? Why engage when you cannot withstand?

To take the life of another just to exit a relationship is nothing short of cowardice, nothing short of animalistic.

Many married women speak of violence in their homes when they question their partners’ infidelity.

They are beaten, sometimes close to death. But fearing the unknown, they stay.

The cruel hands of infidelity, though not as black and white as we would like to imagine, has deadly effects: the mental anguish of the one who has been cheated, sometimes dying a slow and painful death.

READ MORE: Muzikayise Malephane pens confession letter on killing Tshegofatso Pule

The children born as a result of this infidelity, spending their years searching for their roots because they are the products of secrets.

Infidelity is complex – and it now took a life. We now dare not ignore its devastation.

May the courts act within the guidelines of the law in meting out suitable punishment to those cheaters who kill – but the lesson to be learnt?

Let us start what we have no courage to withstand!

Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo.

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