A former prison warder convicted of the murder of his ex-wife tried to hang himself in the holding cells moments before hearing his sentence of life imprisonment in the East London High Court on Wednesday.
Acting Judge Mbulelo Nqumse said 48-year-old Simpiwe Mxosa showed no remorse and paid no regard to the 14 years he served as a correctional officer when he was hacking his 45-year-old ex-wife Bulelwa with a bush knife in their prison quarters last March.
Mxosa was found guilty of premeditated murder, an act he committed in front of his nine-year-old daughter, one of four children he fathered with the deceased.
Bulelwa’s father, James Tutu, who has attended every court appearance, sat in the gallery sobbing periodically, as Judge Nqumse rehashed how brutally Mxosa had ended his daughter’s life.
Bulelwa had just told Mxosa she was leaving him for good, to which he bent under the bed to “help look for shoes,” taking out a bush knife instead.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Nqumse said not only did the accused display his toxic power by hacking her on the head but sadistically ensured that the deceased’s head was chopped into pieces bringing chills to the spine.
Meanwhile, Tutu says he blames Bulelwa’s mother, for pleading her to go back to the man who would chase her out in the middle of the night, forcing her to sleep on the streets with her children.
“The application for a protection order by the deceased, albeit withdrawn, is a clear indication that she is among the many women who are subject to abuse from men under the pretext of being loved,”
Judge Nqumse also said Mxosa’s daughter, who gave a “chilling testimony” via CCTV monitor testified that she was not surprised by this gruesome act, as her father once held an axe to her mother’s head.
In assisting the family, the judge also issued a court order to Social Development for the psychosocial support of the family for the next two years.
Mxosa’s lawyer, Hendrick Erasmus is set to apply for leave to appeal the conviction and the sentence.
