Hearing a woman scream or even the click of a gun brings back horrifying memories for Kagiso Zungu, 18, who watched his mother, Tania Zungu, being brutally killed by his father.
Lwanda Mxolisi Zungu was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Pinetown Regional Court last week for the murder.
Kagiso was just 15 years-old when he witnessed his mother’s killing in January 2024.
He told the court that he wished he had spoken to his grandmother or someone else about the abuse his mother endured at the hands of his father.
In his victim impact statement, Kagiso described a home filled with constant disagreements, bickering, physical fights and tension.
He said his mother was expected to account for every purchase she made, no matter how small.
“She’d even have to report buying a small chocolate for myself and my brother,” Kagiso said.
One of the most vivid memories he recalled was an incident in 2016/2017 at the Ipanima Complex in New Germany, when he said his father punched his mother and dragged her across a carpet, leaving bruises and wounds on her knees.
“As a kid such was downplayed, or I’d be bought a toy for seeing such so that I can forget,” he said.
Kagiso said he initially believed those memories had been left in the past, but over the past two years they have repeatedly resurfaced, both in his head and in his dreams.
“These are the reasons why to date I live with blaming myself for everything. To date I live with feeling like I failed my mom,” he said.
He said he constantly wondered whether his mother would still be alive if he had not believed that everything was okay.
“I live with the thoughts that maybe she’d still be alive if I hadn’t fallen for the propaganda that all is okay or all will be okay, for the propaganda that my mom and dad loved each other and it’s normal for people who love each other to argue and fight the way they did,” he said.
“It was all I was ever used to so it was easy to believe it.”
Kagiso, who is currently a student, said financial and transport difficulties have also made it difficult for him to continue with his studies and continue pursuing his passion which is playing football.
He said he continues to struggle with being separated from his younger brother, who had to move to boarding school due to the circumstances.
Kagiso said he was also struggling emotionally, particularly with expressing his feelings and thoughts, but the family could not afford professional assistance.
Speaking outside court, Tania’s mother, Gwen Msane, said Zungu should have received eight life sentences — one for each bullet fired at her daughter.
Zungu used hollow-point ammunition, a type of bullet designed to expand upon impact.
Msane, who was also present when her daughter was killed, said Zungu had never shown remorse.
“A life sentence is not enough. If you listened to Kagiso’s report, he said he grew up watching his mother being abused. The child is even having regrets,” she said.
In addition to the life sentence, Magistrate Muntukayise Khumalo declared Zungu unfit to possess a firearm.
