News24 | Dad who left kids with mom’s dead body loses KZN High Court bid for lenient sentence

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg dismissed William Gobizizwe Mbothwe’s appeal against his 18-year sentence for brutally murdering his wife Nokuthula at their Kwandengezi home.

• William Gobizizwe Mbothwe stabbed his wife, Nokuthula, 19 times and smothered her with a pillow at their Kwandengezi home in April 2017.
• Advocate Louis Barnard argued the 18-year sentence exceeded the prescribed minimum and lacked substantial justification for the deviation.
• Acting Judge TM Mfeka ruled the brutal nature of the killing and evidence of premeditation warranted the longer sentence imposed by Magistrate Muntukayise Khumalo.

Almost a decade ago, Nokuthula Mbothwe lay dead in her bed, stabbed to death while her two young children slept beside her.

Her husband, William Gobizizwe Mbothwe, was eventually convicted and sentenced to only 18 years for her murder, during which he smothered her with a pillow to muffle her screams. Their 11-year-old daughter would later find her mother’s body.

Despite being spared the maximum sentence, Mbothwe sought to reduce his prison term.

But the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg would not have it, with Acting Judge TM Mfeka ruling that there was no basis to interfere and substitute it with the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment.

On the evening of 4 April 2017, an argument erupted between the couple at their Kwandengezi home.

The next day, William viciously attacked Nokuthula, stabbing her 19 times with a sharp object and smothering her with a pillow before fleeing the scene, leaving their minor children unattended.

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The couple’s 11-year-old daughter and 19-year-old stepdaughter had witnessed the heated argument the previous evening, but were in their bedrooms when the killing took place.

After discovering their mother’s lifeless body the next morning, the traumatised 11-year-old took her two younger siblings from the bedroom and went to the kitchen to prepare food. When police and family members later arrived at the scene, three remaining minor children were found crying in the kitchen, having been abandoned by their father, who fled immediately after the murder.

After pleading not guilty on 2 October 2019, Mbothwe was found guilty of murder at the Pinetown Regional Magistrate’s Court on 25 February 2022.

On 9 January 2023, Magistrate Muntukayise Khumalo sentenced him to 18 years’ imprisonment – three years above the prescribed minimum of 15 years under the Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Khumalo imposed the harsher sentence after finding substantial and compelling aggravating circumstances. He determined the murder was “particularly callous and brutal”, noting the 19 stab wounds, defensive wounds on the victim’s hands, and the use of a pillow to smother her.

The appeal hearing, held in June last year, saw advocate Louis Barnard argue that Khumalo had erred in deviating from the prescribed minimum sentence. Barnard contended that the magistrate “misdirected himself in finding the murder bordered on premeditation” and that this finding “was not advanced by the State nor supported by the evidence”.

The defence also relied on a clinical psychologist’s report by Clive Willows, claiming Mbothwe had diminished criminal capacity at the time of the murder.

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Barnard argued that the magistrate’s own findings – that the stabbing was “a moment of madness” Mbothwe later regretted – showed the crime was neither planned nor premeditated.

However, Mfeka rejected these arguments. The judge found that the magistrate was correct in finding that there were substantial and compelling circumstances warranting deviation from the prescribed minimum sentence.

This, as evidence from postmortem examinations and blood-splatter analysis, supported the findings about the “manner and sequence of the attack and the appellant’s intent/motive”.

The judge emphasised that Mbothwe’s conduct after the killing – fleeing and failing to seek medical assistance for his wife while leaving the traumatised children alone – constituted additional aggravating factors.

Regarding the psychological evidence, the court found that Khumalo had correctly rejected the clinical psychologist’s report as fundamentally flawed.

Willows had acknowledged under cross-examination that his report was “one-sided” and conceded he had not reviewed crucial evidence, including the full trial record and the blood-splatter analysis report.

The magistrate determined that, because Willows had not had the opportunity to review the trial record and compilations of other reports, he “could not look at the entire circumstances of how the offence was committed”.

This incomplete assessment rendered his conclusions on diminished criminal capacity unreliable and inadmissible as a mitigating factor.

“Accordingly, I find that there is no basis to interfere,” Mfeka ruled, formally dismissing the appeal and maintaining the 18-year sentence.