I used her stethoscope to check if she was still breathing, murder-accused boyfriend tells court 

Murder-accused Ntiyiso Xilumane detailed in a guilty plea grisly scenes to the Limpopo High Court on Monday of how he strangled his girlfriend, who was an intern doctor, following a fierce argument about their stormy relationship.

In a statement read in court by his defence counsel, Xilumane detailed how he left his village in Giyani on 17 January this year and travelled to Mankweng hospital outside Polokwane to meet his girlfriend Dr Shongile Pretty Nkhwashu.

Xilumane, 26, was also a student at the University of Limpopo and had a young son with Nkhwashu.

He arrived at the hospital late that afternoon and she met him at the entrance.

Bath

They then proceeded to Nkhwashu’s residence on the hospital premises.

“The deceased took a bath and we then went to the bedroom. She then told me she was leaving me. An argument ensued over the interference of her father in our relationship. She bit me on my finger,” Xilumane said.

He said he then grabbed her by the throat and threw her on the bed.

After some time, she stopped moving.

“I used a stethoscope, which the deceased at some stage showed me how it works, and found that she has stopped breathing,” he said.

He closed the door and left the premises and slept in the open in the Polokwane CBD before approaching the police station.

Senior prosecutor, Advocate Eric Mabapa, told Judge President Ephraim Makgoba that the state intended to show that the murder was premeditated.

He then called the deceased’s father Kenneth Nkhwashu to the stand.

Assault

The father testified about how Xilumane used to assault his daughter.

At some stage, the daughter sent him a picture of herself with a swollen face.

He also spoke of several insulting and threatening messages apparently sent by Xilumane.

In addition, he said, he received half-naked pictures of his daughter and Xilumane in intimate positions.

The father said the trouble between Xilumane and his daughter started just after the birth of their son, over the little’s one surname.

But defence counsel, advocate SM Mawasha, in her cross examination, indicated that the insulting and threatening messages by Xilumane were directed to the father and not the deceased.

The father replied: “If the threats were directed at me only, why is it that it is my daughter who was killed?”

The state asserts that the murder was planned because Xilumane was being rejected for his unbecoming behaviour.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

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