A 36-year-old man has been sentenced to 12 years behind bars for the attempted murder of his former girlfriend, Eastern Cape police said in a statement on Wednesday.
Police spokesperson Captain Jackson Manatha said Wilfred Gunguluza was in a relationship with a police constable stationed at Centane.
He was working in Mpumalanga, but came to visit the 35-year-old constable on Christmas Eve, 2013.
“The constable was preparing to go on a night shift duty. While she was busy preparing herself, the accused picked up her cell phone and saw some messages which made him believe that the constable was cheating. He then confiscated her fire arm (state fire arm) and fired some shots at her lower body,” Manatha said.
Gunguluza fled in her car which was later found in Dutywa. He was arrested in Mpumalanga in April 2014.
The Tsomo Regional Magistrate Court found him guilty of attempted murder, theft of a fiream and malicious damage to property.
Gunguluza was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for attempted murder, two years for theft of a firearm, and he was “cautioned and discharged for malicious damage to property”.
Manatha said he was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
– African News Agency (ANA)
