Picture: succo/Pixabay Picture: succo/Pixabay
Cape Town – Western Cape High Court Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe has described convicted murderer Bulawa Bixa as a cold-blooded killer and a coward after he stabbed his 4-year-old nephew, Bonani Kevin Poni, 32 times in Delft.
The 23-year-old was recently sentenced to 22 years' direct imprisonment and declared to be unfit to possess a firearm for the crime he committed in October 2017.
During the trial as well as in his testimony in mitigation, Bixa had remained adamant that he could not remember the moment at which Bonani had been savagely stabbed to death.
The cause of death, according to pathologist Dr. Lambert Mostert, who had performed the post-mortem, was multiple stab wounds to the body. The boy was stabbed 32 times, including 11 wounds in the left upper chest, eight in the lower chest, 10 in the back, one in the right upper arm.
“So severe was the infliction of the stab injuries that you perforated your young victim's left lung nine times with one incised wound, the heart sustained three perforations with one stab wound.
“The force of these stabbings were so severe and violent that various fractures to the rib cage were sustained including a traumatic herniation of the colon, simply understood to be that the colon had ballooned out of the rear of the child's body through the gashes sustained to his back,” said Salie-Hlophe.
Bonani also sustained defensive injuries on his wrists and hands, indicative that he tried to ward off his uncle's attack, said the judge.
In her scathing judgment, Salie-Hlophe said that on the evening of the attack, Bixa had apologised to Bonani’s mother Lola Poni, but went back on this acknowledgement and denied knowing how the child had died.
“This going to and fro with the truth and your account of events has had an adverse and torturing effect on the loved ones of this child, which effectively robs them from healing in their grief and accepting the traumatic events and reality that their child had been murdered.
“You are a not only a cold-blooded killer, but indeed also a coward for doing this to your own family.
‘‘Bonani was only a 4-year- old. He was an innocent little boy who loved his surroundings and his family, which includes you, as his uncle. He loved watching television and that was the last thing he had been doing when you went about to brazenly and gruesomely stab him a staggering 32 times.
“This child was vulnerable, defenceless, and at 4, still just a toddler. He stood no chance in surviving the fatal attack. It is undeniable that he would have been confused, shocked and scared in the last moments of his life. After all, the person who subjected this egregious violence on him was none other than someone he trusted, that his parents trusted, that he loved and had occasions to play with.
“From the evidence, it is highly likely that Bonani wanted to watch cartoons, which you did not want to watch.
“The loud music which you repeatedly played at that time suggests that you wanted things your way. In the process of asserting yourself over this child, you took his life in the most gruesome manner.
“You did not care about anyone other than yourself. Even in this child's last moments, you stopped him from being comforted by his mother.
“You even stopped him from being held in those last moments or in the moments after his death.
“It is difficult to imagine the unbelievable pain and trauma Bonani’s mother would have felt as she ran towards the house where she was told her child had been attacked, the anguish she would have experienced, being locked out of the house and seeing through a window her child lying in a pool of blood,” she said.