Mamelodi mechanic jailed for 22 years for girlfriend’s murder

A Mamelodi mechanic who stabbed his girlfriend to death because he apparently blamed her for giving him HIV has been sentenced to 22 years imprisonment for her murder.

Sentencing John Baloyi, 53, in the High Court in Pretoria for the gruesome October 2016 murder of his girlfriend Mpho Ndobe, 27, Judge Bert Bam said Baloyi’s HIV positive status and age did not count as mitigating factors.

Baloyi had stabbed the defenceless Ndobe to death after a quarrel during which he accused her of giving him HIV.

He locked her body in their shack and was arrested after her partially decomposed body was discovered several days later.

An autopsy revealed she had died of blunt force head trauma and stab wounds to the chest.

Baloyi was out on parole, after serving part of a 10-year sentence for rape, when he killed Ndobe.

Ndobe’s sister, Eunice Ndobe, burst into tears when she testified about the devastating effect her sister’s death had on her.

“It’s very hard for me and he’s not even sorry for what he did. He knows she was all I had. He never even tried to reach out to me or to get his family to come and talk to me. I just wish things could have been different and that if they had problems they could have come to me,” she said.

“But I want him to know that I forgive him for what he’s done, even though he never said he’s sorry, because I’m tired of living in pain,” she said.

Eunice said she thought she had dealt with her sister’s death, but coming to court, seeing Baloyi and hearing what had happened brought it all back.

“You don’t get over it … it’s something you live with,” she said.

– ilsedl@citizen.co.za

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