Sibusiso Zitha, 41, and Thembekile Letlape, 38, met at a corporate event about six years ago but lost contact and were unable to communicate.
It was only in March 2023, when they met again in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, that their romantic relationship began almost immediately.
This is according to Zitha during his testimony in mitigation of sentence at the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday.
Zitha was found guilty of murdering Letlape, a celebrity chef known as the “Pastry Princess”, in July this year. Letlape and Zitha had been in a relationship and lived together in Fourways.
On May 30 2024, during an argument while Letlape was preparing food in their home, Zitha attacked her in the presence of his 10-year-old daughter. He stabbed her several times in her face and chest, and she succumbed to her wounds at the scene.
He described his relationship with Letlape as initially exciting, as they had met again and she was someone he could relate to.
“She had been disappointed in love many times, so had I, and when we met, it felt like you met someone who sort of waited for your whole life. Those were the early days, and it was nice,” he testified.
This led them to spend most of their time together since they could not get enough of each other. He told the court that the relationship was good, but he felt that they moved too quickly in almost everything.
“The introduction to the family, friends, my visiting at her place, which was her parents' home, obviously meant that I had to interact with the parents and the whole family,” he testified.
While sobbing and crying at times, Zitha testified that the Letlape family accommodated him when he had not been with his parents for a long time. “They showed me kindness and support. They gave us support — I spent a lot of time with them individually — I took walks with the deceased's father and I enjoyed talking to him,” he told the court.
However, their relationship had issues, and he told the court that he did speak with her parents about those issues, but not about everything that arose.
The father of two with two different mothers described the day of the murder incident as tragic.
“It should not have happened in her presence, it shouldn't have happened altogether, but I thank God for her at some level because after the incident, I wanted to kill myself. I couldn't believe what I had done. I was shocked that I could do something like that, and I just wanted it to end. I wanted the misery to end,” he told the court.
He subsequently told his daughter that he wanted to kill himself, he had done something bad, and she then begged him not to commit suicide as she still needed him.
He told the court that it was not about his girlfriend, but he had problems and issues that piled up until he got triggered.
He admitted arriving back in Johannesburg in 2022 from Cape Town as a broken man from a Covid-19-riddled and broken business he had in Cape Town. This affected his marriage, a big component of who he was.
“The divorce knocked me quite a bit. I left Cape Town, I was bingeing on cocaine and alcohol just to cope, and when I came to Joburg, I came to save what was left — I came to save something.
“I was not OK, and I knew I was not OK, and when I met the deceased, I told her one of the reasons I loved her [and that] she accepted me as I was, and it shouldn't have been the case.
“On the night of the incident, it was two years deep, when we had a fight, there was an exchange of words about a sensitive topic about my late parents, and I snapped, and I couldn't stop myself until I saw her body lying on the floor,” he testified.
While on the stand, Zitha apologised to Letlape's parents, who were seated in the public gallery which was packed to capacity with mostly ActionSA supporters.
He told them there were no words that could describe what he had done and the pain that he caused them. “I am sorry for what has happened and the pain I have put you through,” he said.
Thembekile's father, Dr Kgosi Letlape, told the court that Zitha was invited to his son's traditional wedding, six weeks before the incident happened.
“He was there with us as a member of our family. I have been to walks with him, and when he comes into the house, because I spend a lot of time in my office, he would come and sit there and we chat,” he told the court.
He testified that they had exchanged gifts, and that Zitha even gave him and his wife an artwork. “That was the relationship that we had with him,” testified Letlape.
He told the court that what pained his family the most was that they saw the signs of trouble in the relationship.
“She loved him, and I sit and I say she died for love. What we ask ourselves, could we have done more?” He said they opened their house for him, and they thought he could speak to them on any matter.
Zitha is expected to be sentenced on Friday.
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