Sanele Gumede has been sentenced to an effective 25 years imprisonment for killing his girlfriend at Umlazi.
Image: File
A 30-year-old Sanele Gumede has been sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday after he pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend at Umlazi in July 2025.
Gumede, who was in a romantic relationship with Nonkululeko Mzimela that was characterised by turbulence, pleaded guilty to the charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
In his plea, Gumede stated that on July 20, he was at Umlazi consuming alcohol with a friend while Mzimela was at a car wash in another section of Umlazi. He said they had been in constant communication, and Mzimela had shared her location with him so he could meet her.
Later that day, Gumede said he went to the car wash to meet his partner but found her with an unknown man. Upon Gumede’s arrival, the unknown male walked away from the deceased.
Gumede got into the driver’s seat of Mzimela’s motor vehicle while she got into the passenger seat, and they drove to Gumede’s residence.
Sometime thereafter, he said he and Mzimela left his residence in her motor vehicle. In the afternoon, the pair became involved in an argument, during which Gumede accused his partner of being unfaithful to him. While seated in the parked motor vehicle in the Umlazi area, Gumede took out his firearm and shot Mzimela in the neck and stomach, fatally injuring her.
He then drove to a sugarcane farm in Mid-Illovo, where he abandoned the vehicle in a sugarcane field, leaving her body inside the vehicle. He then took her cellphone before contacting someone to fetch him.
A few months later, Gumede said he was contacted by the police, who requested that he hand himself over. He complied and was subsequently arrested.
State advocate Lindokuhle Gumede handed in victim impact statements to the court, where the Mzimela family members expressed their grief and devastation at losing her. They described her as a peacemaker and someone who believed in harmony and unity.
The High Court further sentenced Gumede to 10 years' imprisonment for robbery and ordered that the sentences run concurrently with the murder sentence. The court further declared him unfit to possess a firearm.
Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, the spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in KwaZulu-Natal, welcomed the sentence.
“Curbing the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide remains an organisational priority for the NPA. Together with our partners in the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, we will continue to ensure that perpetrators of these offences are held accountable,” she said.
nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za