EC man accused of murdering girlfriend, will learn fate tomorrow

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

An Eastern Cape man who allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death, will also learn his fate on Thursday.

Nkosinathi Xabidiya had reportedly pleaded not guilty to murdering his girlfriend, Sandiswa Mhlawuli, whom he allegedly hauled out of a taxi and stabbed to death on the same day that she had finally received a protection order against him.

His trial got underway in the Butterworth Regional Court in July, some seven months after the incident in Dutywa on December 10th.

The NGO, Sonke Gender Justice, says when it got involved in the case, Xabadiya had been out on free bail, but through public protests he was taken into custody.

Sonke spokesperson, Patrick Godana, looks at parallels between this case and that of Oscar Pistorius.

The global media attention in the Reeva Steenkamp case, and Sonke's involvement in the Sandiswa Mhlawuli murder case has helped these two cases move through the courts more quickly. Usually, though, men's violence against women is treated as a low priority. Peacock says that government representatives pay predictable lip service to treating violence against women as a priority, but fail to follow up with the commitment and resources necessary for effective violence prevention measures, or for health and criminal justice services"

He also laments the fact that the Oscar trial has received national and global coverage, while Mhlawuli's murder received little or no media attention.

Reeva's death is tragic, as are the deaths of the more than 1,000 women that have or will be killed in South Africa this year, but the global media attention of the Pistorius trial gives us the opportunity to demand that our government take action now and implement the kind of comprehensive national plan necessary to ensure that even if the justice system fails them, the deaths via gender-based violence of the many thousands of women will not be ignored