DURBAN - A KWADUKUZA man tore off his girlfriend’s clothes and slapped her on the face several times with his fist until she was bleeding from her nose and mouth, after she confessed that the baby she was carrying, may not be his.

Lungani Gqwarhu who pleaded guilty to the December 12, 2020, murder of Nokuphiwa Magwaza, told this to the Durban High Court on Thursday.

He had been in a relationship with Magwaza since April 2019. A week before the incident, Magwaza had visited him at his place of residence in the Nonoti area in Dorington, KwaDukuza.

Magwaza promised to visit him on December 12, but when he returned from work he found that she was not there. He could not phone her as his phone was damaged so he decided to pay her a visit at her home.

When he got there, he could not get an explanation as to why she had not gone to his house as arranged.

Gqwarhu told the court that she accompanied him to the bus stop, and on the way he tried to persuade her to come home with him.

“She said she could not go with me because she had a boyfriend who was set to visit her that night. I was shocked to hear that she had another boyfriend, more so because during her last visit to me she told me that she suspected that she was pregnant. When I enquired from her as to who the father was, she told me that she was not sure. She said she had been in an intimate relationship with another man,” he said.

She told him that she had been in a relationship with the other man for a longer period than the accused.

He said he was overwhelmed with anger and frustration, and slapped her with an open hand on the face.

“When she retaliated, we ended up engaging in a physical fight. In my state of extreme anger, I remember tearing her clothes off and hitting her on her face several times with my fists. She was bleeding from the nose and mouth. I then dragged her to the nearby communal water tap so as to wake her up, by splashing water. She was semi-conscious and lying on the ground,” he said.

He said while at the tap, two people appeared and asked him what happened, but he was unable to provide a clear answer as he was still in shock.

“I realised that she was unresponsive. I sought assistance in order to carry her to the main road, but one of them said he was rushing to church and the other one disappeared in the darkness. At this stage, I realised what I had done. I tried to resuscitate her a number of times but to no avail.”

He said he immediately contacted his friend to organise an ambulance but there were no ambulances available.

“I went to her (Magwaza) home and informed her sister Nomthandazo about what had happened.”

He said when he was arrested he wanted to confess and plead guilty.

Gqwarhu is expected to be sentenced next week.

Daily News