The trial of Sithobele Qebe came to an end on Tuesday (13 August) when he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his girlfriend, Siphokazi Booi (27), in September 2021.
After almost three years of postponements by the defence, friends and family wondered if they would ever get justice for Booi.
However, Qebe’s reckoning day has come who pleaded guilty to the murder of his girlfriend (count one), obstructing the administration of?justice (count two), assault with intent to do cause grievous bodily harm (count three), desecrating a corpse (count four) and contravention of his bail condition (count five).
This is according to Eric Ntabazalila, spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the Western Cape.
Qebe was sentenced to life imprisonment (20 years) for count one three years for count two, five years for count three, five years for count four and three years for count five, totalling 36 years.
“The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently effectively sentencing him to life imprisonment,” Ntabazalila said.
During Qebe’s guilty plea, he confirmed that he and Booi entered into an argument on 3 September 2021 when both of them were intoxicated.
He told the court that Booi first “struck him with her fist and tore his T-shirt” where after he became “angry and responded forcefully by kicking her four times in the stomach causing her to fall and vomit through her nose and mouth.”
“He noticed that she was in serious pain, seemed disorientated and was holding her stomach. He grabbed her and forcefully ejected her from the house and saw her crouching against the wall of the house,” Ntabazalila explained.
Qebe then fell asleep but awoke to Booi’s body still in the same position it was the night before.
According to the state prosecutor, William da Gras, the pathology results claims blunt force trauma to the head as the cause of death, where after Qebe defeated the administration of justice by trying to hide her body.
“After realizing [she was deceased], he bundled her body in a wheelie bin and dumped it on a burning dumpsite with the hope that the flames would engulf the wheelie bin and her body. He did this fearing that authorities may discover his crime,” Ntabazalila stated.
The murder occurred while Qebe was released on bail for assaulting Booi during a previous altercation including “hitting her with his fists and biting her” on 7 August 2021.
Qebe was granted bail four days later on 11 August 2021, with conditions that he must not contact the deceased, however, the court found that he violated this bail condition.
During this time she was also a state witness in the assault case and had to appear in court on 8 October 2021, but was then killed.
During Qebe’s trail at the Paarl Regional Court, Da Gras called several witnesses including medical experts, the investigating officer and officials from Ilitha Labantu and Action Society.
He asked the court to impose life imprisonment as this was a premeditated murder and his request was successful.
Adv. Nicolette Bell, the NPA’s Western Cape director of public prosecution,?expressed “shock at the level of gruesomeness and cruelty” of the case.
“We [the NPA] will continue with our concerted efforts in the fight against the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide. That this sentencing takes place during women’s month is indicative of our fight to ensure the reduction of GBV in our communities,” Bell said.
