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ANCWL: Men can’t get away with things like this

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Actress Manaka Ranaka took part in the #MakeitStop campaign for no violence against women for Women’s Month. Picture: Leeroy Jason
Actress Manaka Ranaka took part in the #MakeitStop campaign for no violence against women for Women’s Month. Picture: Leeroy Jason

They are the words no mother wants to hear – “Mama you need to come here now. Something has happened.”

Lindiwe Mbonambi dropped the call from her daughter and rushed to the club at which her 24-year-old niece Nomhle Mbonambi worked on the night of December 27.

“When I got there, I just saw police cars and ambulance vans and lights flashing everywhere. Nomhle was already on the stretcher and she was hurt badly.

"There was blood everywhere. She was just blinking, and then she passed away right in front of us.”

Nomhle’s ex-boyfriend, Sibongiseni Patrick Zondi appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court this week, to face charges of murder after he allegedly stabbed her 20 times at the Johannesburg club.

Gauteng ANC Women’s League spokesperson Jacqui Mofokeng said the suspect claimed to be “hearing voices” and said that’s why he did it.

Zondi has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric analysis and the case has been postponed to July 19.

The Gauteng branch of the ANC Women’s League has been assisting the Mbonambi family with food and transportation costs, and it has been at the forefront of calling for justice.

“We are calling for 25 years for every stab wound – that would equate to a life sentence essentially. It is not okay for our women to be going through this, irrespective of the situation they are in. Men can’t be getting away with things like this,” Mofokeng said.

According to Lindiwe, Nomhle and Zondi’s relationship began in 2011, and Nomhle fell pregnant.

“He started showing his true colours because he didn’t want to support the child.

"We told her she needed to leave him and start her life afresh because he wasn’t being a good man to her,” Lindiwe said, adding that the relationship continued, and in 2015 Nomhle fell pregnant with their second child.

Lindiwe said during that time, they found out that he had two other girlfriends.

They also heard rumours that he had abused and allegedly injured one of them.

“That’s when I told her that he would kill her,” she said.

The family is originally from Stanger in KwaZulu-Natal.

Nomhle moved up to Johannesburg to find work and rebuild her life.

Lindiwe said she would never forget being called to the club by her daughter who also worked there.

“She said mama you need to come here now. Something has happened to Nomhle.”

She said the family wanted justice.

“We are traumatised ... Our daughter is gone and there is nothing that we can do. We have to endure a lifetime of trauma now,” Lindiwe said in an emotional interview.

This is the latest in a series of intimate murder cases that have been in the public spotlight over the last few weeks.

One of the most high profile cases was that of Karabo Mokoena, who was necklaced, allegedly by her boyfriend, on April 27.

The trial date of her former boyfriend, Sandile Kagiso Mantsoe, has not been set.

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