Western Cape High Court Judge Vincent Saldanha has highlighted the urgent need for police officers to protect victims of domestic violence. A report in The Citizen notes that he sentenced Bongani Dodo to 15 years behind bars for murdering his wife (29) and mother of their two children in 2013. Saldanha said Zuziwe Gobelo had been ‘another victim of the failure of some members of the police to properly respond to the complaints of victims of domestic violence’.

Despite having opened a criminal case against her husband for domestic battery at Ocean View Police Station on 16 December, police failed to find him, and Gobelo never heard from the police again. On the morning of 27 December, Gobelo was preparing to leave home for her work at a top restaurant in Kalk Bay. Her husband arrived and in an altercation over money, Dodo pulled out a knife and stabbed Gobelo repeatedy, killing her.

Dodo then stabbed himself in the chest, creating superficial wounds as a ‘ruse’ for his claims that he had acted in self-defence. Dodo was sentenced to 15 years for murder, as prescribed by minimum sentencing legislation. He received 18 months for malicious damage to property and the sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

Full report in The Citizen