20-year prison term for Joburg man who doused lover with petrol and burnt her
Johannesburg - A man who doused his girlfriend with petrol as she slept and set her alight has been handed a 20-year sentence for the murder.
Mpho Thobane was sentenced yesterday at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court three years after murdering Viwe Dalingozi.
The magistrate said Thobane never showed any remorse because after he set Dalingozi alight, he fled to Limpopo instead of helping her.
On October 26 in 2018, Dalingozi was asleep at their Joburg CBD flat when Thobane entered, doused her with petrol then set her alight.
As she burnt, Thobane fled to Limpopo.
Dalingozi, who was from Engcobo in the Eastern Cape, died after two days of excruciating pain.
Johannesburg Police spokesperson Captain Xoli Mbele said Thobane had arrived home that evening to find Dalingozi sitting with her friends on another floor. Thobane, he said, was unemployed and Dalingozi was the breadwinner.
He said Thobane joined them and later said they must leave. However, Dalingozi told him he could go ahead and she would find him at the flat.
“When she later went to their flat, she did not find him and then got into bed to sleep. Thobane later came, poured petrol on her and set her on fire.
“He fled to Limpopo where we arrested him four days later.
During the trial, the couple’s neighbour told court that she saw Dalingozi running down the corridor while engulfed in flames.
Maletsatsi Ngoashe said before that, she had heard the couple speaking loudly.
Sometime later there was a strange sound and smell but she did not know where it was coming from.
She said it went on for some time and was like a burning plastic and the smell was like burning paint.
“I jumped out of my bed and felt that the floor was hot.
“I rushed to the door and tried to listen to what was happening. As my ear touched the wall, I felt how hot it was,” Ngoashe said.
“Then I opened my door and saw Viwe running. She was on fire and screaming that nditshisiwe uMpho (Mpho has set me alight). I saw a huge flame coming from her flat and I followed her as she was running towards the stairs.
“Her hair was falling off and she had blood on her chest. She was trying to take off her T-shirt, it was burnt and she was trying to remove it from her body, but couldn’t,” Ngoashe said.
An ambulance was called and Dalingozi was rushed to hospital where she died two days later.
Dalingozi’s family, who travelled all the way from the Eastern Cape for the sentencing, said they were happy with the sentence.
Even if he had been handed down a life sentence, that was not going to bring their daughter back, they said.
Thobane intends to appeal his sentence.
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