An abusive cheater has been jailed for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend with his service pistol.

Former traffic officer Fanele Nxuseka, 38, was sentenced on Wednesday to life imprisonment for the murder and 12 years for kidnapping by the high court sitting in Port St Johns.

NPA regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said evidence presented in court was that Nxuseka, who is married, had been in an abusive extramarital love relationship with the deceased, who did not disclose to him that she was on antiretroviral treatment (ARVs).

“Nxuseka discovered on his own that his girlfriend was HIV-positive, and believed that she might have infected him and his wife.”

In May 2020, he went to the girlfriend’s home in the Ngobozana area, in the district of Lusikisiki, and demanded that she leave with him. “The girlfriend left her cellphone with her sister and told her that she might not be coming back alive.”

When she did not return home, her family searched for her and found her lifeless body with multiple gunshot wounds in the neighbouring Mmangweni village.

Nxuseka was arrested the following day. Ballistic tests conducted on the cartridges found on the scene positively linked them to the firearm issued to Nxuseka by the state.

After state advocate Mkhuseli Ntaba closed the prosecution’s case, which included the evidence of Nxuseka’s friend to whom he confided that he had discovered that his girlfriend was on ARVs, Nxuseka chose not to take the witness box in his defence.

Eastern Cape director of public prosecutions Barry Madolo applauded the work of the prosecutor and investigating officer in ensuring that gender-based violence is punished without fear or favour, even if the perpetrator is a law enforcement official.

TimesLIVE