Alutha Pasile, the convicted murderer, was found guilty of brutally murdering and dismembering the body of the 23-year-old Fort Hare student, Nosicelo Mtebeni.
On Thursday the 25-year-old, Pasile, was sentenced in the East London Court after pleading guilty to the murder and to attempting to defeat the ends of justice on Monday.
Pasile was sentenced to a further 10 years in prison for the second charge.
In Pasile’s guilty plea, he claimed that he had found text messages on Mtebeni’s cellphone which led to him attacking her during a confrontation.
Nickie Turner, the National Prosecuting Authority Senior State Advocate, stated that although Pasile pleaded guilty, he still showed a lack of remorse for murdering Mtebeni.
Turner stated that “he had no choice but to plead guilty to both counts in view of the fact that the hands and head of the deceased were found in his flat together with the equipment purchased by him for the purposes of dismembering her.”
“[Mtebeni] was reduced…to a mere thing that was going to be cut for the self-serving purpose of avoiding detection. His self-interest and lack of empathy at her death is blood-chilling and grotesque,” said Turner.
Meanwhile, Tamara Mathebula, the Commission for Gender Equality’s chairperson, welcomed the sentence and encouraged courts to “mete out” justice with “speed and efficiency” in cases that involve femicide and gender-based violence.
Mathebula stated that the country is experiencing high levels of violence against women and girls which calls for “aggressive and speedy resolution of police investigations and court cases”.
“With just less than ten years left before 2030 and the GBV scourge escalating at the current pace, South Africa will likely miss the Sustainable Development Goal target [to end gender-based violence by 2030] and that will be a poor reflection of the country's efforts in the fight against violence on women. That would render the country's commemoration of Women's Month and 16 Days of Activism as useless,” said Mathebula.
