ANC member of Parliament Sibusiso Kula is due to appear in court on Monday, 23 January in connection with the murder of his 31-year-old wife, Jennifer Motlhomi.  

Kula was arrested on Friday and will appear in the Orkney Magistrates’ Court in North West. He is accused of stabbing his wife to death in their home on 27 November 2022. 

National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed the arrest of a suspect but did not name him. Mathe said the man would face a charge of murder.

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Motlhomi had signalled through a series of Facebook posts that she was being abused.  

“GBV is real, if I wake up killed or any of my family members, don’t look far,” she wrote in one post.  

Her Facebook friends advised her to seek help or leave the environment and she responded that she was trying to do this.  

‘Noted with shock’

ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe told Daily Maverick that the party noted with shock the arrest of Kula.  

“We are working on a statement,” he said. “We know he is appearing tomorrow [Monday] and we have already spoken [to] the caucus and they indicated that they will be following due processes.”  

The EFF said: “This ANC MP, Kula, has made an absolute mockery of gender-based violence (GBV) in his rantings against GBV during Parliament plenaries. However, he is a reflection of the ANC government’s approach in addressing the deadly violence, rape and abuse by men against women, hence the consistent alarming statistics in this regard. 

“We call on the Speaker of Parliament to give intensive oversight to the Ethics Committee that is often found wanting in dealing with cases of abuse reported to it. 

“The arrest of Kula almost two months after the murder of Ms Motlhomi is a reminder that high-profile femicide cases are attended to with some degree of urgency by the South African Police Service.”  

The ANC Women’s League and the EFF are expected to picket outside the court during Kula’s appearance. DM