Life sentence for NMU George student who murdered his girlfriend

Update

GEORGE NEWS - Spontaneous applause erupted this morning in the George Magistrate’s Court when Luyanda Mahlanza was handed down a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend, Zimkhitha Ntshisela (20).

“I am happy and the family is happy, as long as that guy is in prison for life. But the problem is, my child is not coming back,” Ntshisela’s mother, Pinkie Matshoboza, told George Herald outside the courtroom.

Mahlanza, aged 22 at the time of the offence, was convicted on one count of murder with criminal intent for stabbing his romantic partner to death inside her campus residence room at Nelson Mandela University’s George Campus on 6 June 2023.

Neither his relative youthfulness nor the range of psychological issues he had suffered for the last 10 years (including depression and anger issues, for which he previously refused treatment), or the fact that he had admitted to all the evidence against him, could convince the court to hand down a lesser sentence.

In the end, the court deemed Mahlanza an intelligent, mature individual who acted on his own and stated the death of the accused was on his hands. The magistrate said because the evidence against the accused was overwhelming and he had little room to manoeuvre and build a defence, the guilty plea did not indicate remorse.

Having considered a range of possible mitigating factors in the search for substantial and compelling circumstances to warrant deviating from the minimum prescribed sentence, the court could not find any. In addition to the life sentence, Mahlanza was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.

In the build-up to his conclusion, the magistrate, who the media is barred from naming, said the details presented in the post-mortem report and crime scene photo album told a story of ‘shocking violence’.

He described some of the 16 stab wounds and 28 superficial wounds the deceased sustained. Four stab wounds penetrated her right chest cavity before perforating the right lung and superficially perforating the right ventricle of the heart.

Another stab wound then entered her right chest cavity, perforating her right lung. At some point, this was followed by another stab wound to the left chest cavity that perforated the left lung. The fatal stab was delivered to the left chest cavity, perforating the left lung and penetrating the heart.

He described a photo album that gave a very graphic outline of the crime scene. He said one could clearly see the room of the deceased was covered in blood. The floor and the items of clothing on the bed were drenched in blood. The photos also showed the large knife used by the accused to inflict the deadly wounds.

“There is no excuse for the excessive violence inflicted on the deceased,” the magistrate said.
A slender Mahlanza, now with a clean shaved head, was dressed in black skinny jeans, a greenish puffer jacket and sneakers.

He showed very little reaction when hearing his fate and remained composed as he was escorted out of the courtroom back to prison.

The slain NMU student, Zimkhitha Ntshisela. Photo: Sourced/TikTok