Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

Murder of Tshegofatso Pule

In June 2020, Tshegofatso Pule was found shot in the chest[1] and hanging from a tree in Durban Deep, Roodepoort. Pule, a 28-year-old South African woman, was 8 months pregnant at the time.[2]

After an investigation, police established that her boyfriend, Ntuthuko Shoba was responsible for her murder by hiring a hitman to kill her.[3][4] Shoba was convicted of conspiracy to murder and related charges in March 2022. A few months prior, in January, the hitman Muzikayise Malephane testified on his and Shoba's plan to murder Pule.[5] Malephane had pled guilty to the murder in February 2021.[6]

On July 29 2022, Shoba was sentenced to life in prison.[7] The judge, Stuart Wilson, noted that there were no mitigating factors that would cause the court to deviate from the maximum sentence.[8] The hitman, Malephane, had previously been sentenced to 20 years for Pule's murder.[9]

Pule's murder generated public outcry on the high rate of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa. [10][11][8]

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