
The State has successfully proven that a former police officer lied when he told the court that he was robbed at gunpoint by two unknown assailants, who then killed his ex-girlfriend.
Former crime intelligence member, Thandolwethu Faku, was sentenced to life behind bars in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday for the 2018 murder of Wendy Papu in Khayelitsha.
Faku was off-duty when he visited Papu’s shack in Site B while the woman and her two kids were asleep.
During an argument, he shot her.
The State also proved that the off-duty police officer visited his ex-girlfriend’s shack on the evening of 9 January 2018, at R106 Site B, Khayelitsha.
Faku was also sentenced to six months imprisonment for her assault and three years imprisonment for attempting to defeat the administration of justice.
The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently and declared the former police officer unfit to possess a firearm.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s Eric Ntabazalila said “Judge Nziweni described Faku’s actions as evil and told him that the facts of the case unmasked a ruthless killer with an admirable exterior that reveals an ugly part when one digs below it. He violated his oath to ensure that he protected South Africans, particularly women when he murdered the deceased. She found his version fictitious and was astounded that he believed it as factual. He failed to take responsibility, showed no remorse or empathy for the family, no accountability and referred to the family of the deceased as “that family”.