Civil rights lobby movement #NOTINMYNAME says it welcomes the guilty verdict handed down to the mastermind in the Tshegofatso Pule murder case.
Earlier on Friday, the Johannesburg High Court found Ntuthuko Shoba guilty of ordering the murder of his pregnant girlfriend Tshegofatso in 2020.
Acting Judge Stuart Wilson found Shoba guilty of “pre meditated murder” in that he arranged with Muzikayise Malephane to kill Tshegofatso.
Malephane, who turned state witness, is already serving 20 years in prison for the murder.
Malephane told the court how he was instructed by Shoba, who was at the time employed as an analyst at the JSE, to make the murder look like suicide.
However, Malephane said he shot the 28-year-old beautician, Tshegofatso, before he hung her lifeless body on a tree.
Tshegofatso was eight months pregnant when her body was found shot and hanging from a tree in Durban Deep.
The court heard that Shoba orchestrated the killing because Pules pregnancy threatened his marriage.
Commenting on the guilty judgment, #NOTINMYNAME said: “We applaud all those who were involved in making sure that this case finally gets to this clear guilty verdict.
The civil rights lobby movement added: “We look forward to the sentencing and want to state that, nothing less than a life sentence will be acceptable.”
The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) also added its voice to those who welcomed the Johannesburg High Courts judgment that found Shoba guilty.
The CGE said it “hopes” that the incarceration of Malepane and Shoba “will send a strong message to GBVF perpetrators”.
“We urge the justice system to speed up GBVF cases to restore public faith in the judiciary and demonstrate to the people of South Africa that gender-based crimes are highly prioritised in the courts,” said the CGE.
The CGE said the process between murders and conviction of perpetrators was “painfully long and subjects affected families to secondary victimisation after the deaths of their loved ones”.
The commission said it remains disturbed by the alarming rates of gender-based violence and femicide occurrences “in our country”.
The CGE said it was expecting a tough sentence considering the brutal manner Tshegofatso and her unborn baby were murdered.
