• Tweet

KILLER: Policeman Themba Nkosi

MURDERED: Nelisiwe Nkomo

RELATED ARTICLES

• Rubber bullets outlawed - Mthethwa
• Cele takes Zuma to court

A MONTH after a court dismissed a protection order that prevented him from carrying a gun, a Mpumalanga cop has shot dead his wife and then himself.

Distraught family members of Nelisiwe Nkomo, 21, of Kwaggafontein outside KwaMhlanga, said the justice system had failed to protect their daughter from her abusive husband, Witbank policeman Themba Nkosi

Nkomo's father, Daniel Nkomo, said: "Clearly my daughter was killed by the justice system. If the court had granted her request not to allow her husband to carry a gun, she would still be alive today."

In June Nkomo filed an urgent application in the Mkobola Magistrate's Court asking the court to declare her husband unfit to carry a firearm.

In the application she alleged that Nkosi was physically abusing her and had threatened to shoot her with his service pistol.

Nkomo had said the abuse she endured was also emotionally affecting their two-year-old daughter. Nkomo also alleged that Nkosi wanted her out of their matrimonial house.

She told the court that her application was urgent because her husband was so violent he would end up killing her.

Magistrate Jonas Mahlangu granted an interim order against Nkosi on June1. On June 27 Mahlangu set his initial order aside, allowing Nkosi to carry his service pistol after Nkosi's appearance before the court, at which he gave reasons why he should be allowed to carry a gun.

Last Wednesday Nkosi killed Nkomo with the same gun before shooting himself.

Nkomo's 14-year-old niece, who was visiting the family last week, said she was bathing in the couple's bedroom when Nkosi arrived and took bullets from his safe in the room.

"Moments later I heard my aunt screaming that Nkosi was shooting at her. I jumped out of the bath tub and, with my aunt, ran out of the yard.

"Nkosi ran after us and managed to grab my aunt and shot her once in the head before he shot himself," she said.

Moses Dlamini, spokesman for the the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, said they were investigating the matter.

ANC Women's League spokeswoman Troy Martens said they were disappointed that the court had allowed Nkosi to carry a firearm despite complaints from his wife.

Lisa Vetten of the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre said while it was not clear why the magistrate did not confirm his initial order "this was one mistake that will haunt him".

• This article was first published in the printed newspaper on 6 August 2012

Comments

• Sign in or sign up to comment

Thu May 23 23:04:20 SAST 2013 ::

Aug 7, 2012

tpaz

The gun brought by the pale devils has become the thorn in our flesh.
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

MyPot

the court must pay the nkomo's family, end of story
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

truthhurt

With his uniform on he looks like someone you can trust does'nt he?

Well they all look like that but in reality they are all evil monsters.
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

Memme

I guess it's true when they say don't judge the book by its cover, form that picture he looks like an innocent man with respect, and loving.

Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

Mellow

Our justice system for us, this is soo sad really. How can we live like this where the law only protects criminals women are in danger for real and we have nowhere to run no one to protect us. Officers of the law are the worst criminals heartless and stupid so we literally fckd. Woman's Month and they keep k.illing and raping us when will it end?

To the family my sincere condolences may her soul RIP...
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

iVolontiya

When all you've been working so hard for is being undermined, one can be pushed beyond boundaries of sanity...We just have to wonder what the real deal was...Ms Nkomo may not be the only victim here. Just saying. Beatiful, young, and 'married to a policeman?' - I can hear her friends pointing that out to her...
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

Chichi7

Our biggest problem for women is that the people that are in the justice department and police are majority men.
They protect each other and they think that women are exaggerating when they run to the police to lay charges. Most of the police do not care and most simply tell the woman to go back home and be the wife that she should be and know her place.
Such men continue to abuse as they know that the police will do nothing or they will be out on bail. It is so sad that courts have failed this mother and her child will grow up without a mother.
Men need to learn to seek help, seriously.
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

imd

What a waste..poor child only two :(
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

dead_man_walking

imagine working for about twenty years, you get divorced and it is not even your fault, the wife gets half your assets and pension, then she goes around bragging about how she cleaned you to the core, she send you pictures of her and her new boyfriend enjoying your hard-earned cash, what do you do?

One of my friend discovered that his wife was sending her naked pictures to her boyfriend, now the guy is hospitalized for depression. The quick solution for an angry man who has been provoked like that is a gun.
Report Abuse

Aug 7, 2012

Chichi7

@ dead_man_walking
---------------------------------------------------------------
are you actually condoning men killing their partners because they have divorced and she has found another partner?
You talk about her sending naked picture to her boyfirend, what about the many women he bangs behind her back?
Do you perhaps think that women have not feelings that hurt and only men are entitled to these feelings and also have the right to act in the most brutal way?
just asking.
Report Abuse

Read all 51 comments