South African Man Gets 25 Years for Shooting and Dumping Wife

Bloemfontein — The Free State High Court has sentenced a 36-year-old South African man to 25 years’ imprisonment after pleadeding guilty to the murder of his 29-year-old wife.

Judge Somaganthie Naaido imposed the term for the femicide that began with a job interview trip from Soweto and ended with the victim’s body dumped in bushes near Uitkyk farm.

South African Police Services (SAPS) revealed that, on the day of the killing in January 2025, the convict, Dakalo Nemangwele, drove with his wife, Mudzunga Ramalata (29) to Bloemfontein.

While returning on the N1 highway in the Verkeerdevlei precinct, he fired multiple shots at her, fatally wounding her, then disposed of her body off the national road.

He continued to Musina in Limpopo, abandoned the vehicle and firearms with two friends, and later fled to Zimbabwe.

Family members reported the couple missing on 20 January 2025 after failed attempts to reach them.

Police traced the white Ford Ranger through its tracking system to Musina.

The Bloemfontein K9 Unit and the tracker company then searched the route, identifying three stop points.

Empty cartridges were recovered at the second location, and at the third, officers found Ramalata’s decomposing body on 22 January 2025.

Sergeant Thabo Moeketsi of the Verkeerdevlei Detectives led the probe.

The vehicle had been taken to a car wash after discovery of blood stains, a bullet hole and a broken window.

Two of Nemangwele’s friends were arrested in the process, one for defeating the ends of justice, the other for possessing the accused’s firearms.

Nemangwele handed himself in at Musina Police Station on 24 January 2025.

He appeared in the Bloemfontein court, was denied bail and remained in custody.

Cellphone data placed both phones in the same areas at critical times.

CCTV captured Nemangwele travelling with the deceased in the damaged Ford Ranger, then taking an off-ramp to dump the body before rejoining the N1.

“The undeniable evidence left him with no way out,” Advocate Thembile Nyakama said of the DNA results from the Forensic Science Laboratory and state witness testimony that sealed the case, as recounted by SAPS.

Initially built on circumstantial links, the investigation tightened through forensic work and digital tracking.

“Sergeant Moeketsi’s meticulous work outwitted every complexity,” Free State Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Thabang Lesia stated.

Lesia praised the investigating officer and external partners for delivering justice.

“This outcome demonstrates zero tolerance for femicide,” he said.

Nemangwele’s guilty plea followed the presentation of the full evidential chain.

The 25-year sentence closes a case that stretched from the Free State highways to Limpopo and across the Zimbabwe border.