THIS ISN'T JUSTICE

A woman was shot dead by her fiancé, who said he thought she was an intruder. Now her family believe he got off lightly

- MELON RADEBE

IT’S been four years since she lost the niece who was like a daughter to her – the young woman she’d raised since she was a little girl.

Her niece, Hlengiwe Msimango, was shot dead in the bedroom of her home in Norkem Park, east of Johannesburg, in a case that has awful echoes of Reeva Steenkamp’s 2013 death at the hands of her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius.

Hlengiwe’s fiancé, Musa Ntsibande, shot her in the early hours of 3 August 2020, claiming he believed an intruder was in the house.

During his trial Ntsibande said Hlengiwe had woken him and told him she could hear people outside their home. He grabbed his firearm and went to investigate but found nothing and returned to bed.

At around 4am he was woken by a noise and said he saw a shadow behind the bedroom curtain. He fired three shots, killing Hlengiwe as their baby boy slept in the room.

Two other children – Hlengiwe’s now eight-year-old daughter and Ntsibande’s now six-year-old son – were asleep in their bedrooms.

The case made headlines across the country. Ntsibande was a prosperous businessman, part-owner of a construction company, and Hlengiwe was his beautiful wife-to-be. They seemed to have it all – until everything fell apart.

Ntsibande was recently sentenced to 12 years for murder – but for Hlengiwe’s aunt, Thandi Nkumane, it isn’t justice enough.

Thandi raised her niece after Hlengiwe’s mother was murdered. Now Hlengiwe is gone too.

“Her biggest wish was to be a loving mother to her children because she never knew that love from her mother,” Thandi says.