Man jailed for killing girlfriend in jealous rage

A jealous boyfriend who brutally murdered his partner after wrongly believing she was having an affair has been jailed for life.

Tanaka Zivanai, 32, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday to life with a minimum of 20 years and 10 months' imprisonment.

Zanele Sibanda, 28, was attacked in the street during the early morning hours of 27 August in Tredworth, Gloucestershire, in front of multiple shocked onlookers.

A post-mortem examination found the mother-of-two died from multiple stab wounds to the head, throat, body and arms.

Robin Shellard, prosecuting, said the murder was the culmination of an argument which had started the previous evening, in which the defendant had accused his partner of cheating.

"Tanaka Zivanai murdered his partner, Zanele Sibanda, on the streets of Gloucester in front of a number of members of public after showing signs of jealousy, accusing her of infidelity, and arguing with her," he told the court.

"He brutally assaulted her with a knife he had brought with him from his home, leaving her with multiple stab wounds which caused her to die at the scene of the assault."

The court heard the Zimbabwe-born defendant and Ms Sibanda, who was from South Africa, had arrived separately in the UK in 2023 but began a relationship after getting jobs as care workers.

They moved into a flat together in Tredworth, where neighbours would often hear a man shouting and a woman crying.

On one occasion, neighbours heard the defendant shouting, accusing her of sleeping with someone else.

On another occasion, Ms Sibanda was visiting a friend when the defendant phoned her and shouted: "I'll kill you if you come here, don't come back to this house."

On the evening of the murder, CCTV in the local area captured a man and woman shouting in the street and frequently returning to a nearby flat.

A short time later, neighbours heard a woman screaming and saw a man kneeling on the ground with a woman in his lap, with him pleading: "Wake up, get up, get up."

"Another neighbour called the police as he had seen the man with his hand over the woman's mouth and then stabbed her repeatedly," Mr Shellard said.

"He described how the defendant started to cut himself.

"His brother also saw the attack and had heard an argument about a visa and the woman saying how she was going to make him go back home."

Det Ch Insp Wayne Usher from Gloucestershire Police's Major Crimes Unit said: "We suspect Zivanai had his status in the UK threatened, which led him to carry out this savage and premeditated act of extreme violence.

"I welcome the sentence handed to Zivanai and hope that Zanele's loved ones can now find some closure as they try and rebuild their lives without her."

Speaking outside court, Nonkanyiso Tshuma said she had always imagined coming to the UK for the first time to attend her sister's graduation - not her murder trial.

"A two-year-old and a nine-year-old have to live today without their mother because of another, it's so heartbreaking" she said.

"Zivanai isn't even showing any signs of remorse. It's a hard pill to swallow."

Sentencing Zivanai to life in prison, Judge William Hart said: "You were angry and aggressive, and she was cowed by your behaviour.

"You appear to have become convinced that she was in some form of relationship, perhaps an affair, with another man.

"That was, as far as the evidence indicates, a wholly groundless suspicion and that form of jealousy appears to have been a feature of much of your relationship.

"The circumstances of this poor young woman's killing were horrific," he added.

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