Irene Mathews

Irene Mathews (1916 - 2003)

Brief overview:

Irene (87), was hit on the head, a gag stuffed in her mouth, bandages tied around her throat and mouth, and raped. Four attackers gained entry into her home in Marina da Gama, Cape Town, through an unlocked door in the garage, in May 2003.

After the killers murdered Irene, they tied-up her hands, explaining it as, "my people are afraid of the dead," said Themba Ngxaki (32).

Ngxaki said that while he had held Mathews's hands down, Wilberforce Poswa (48), kept his hands on her face and had stuffed a gag into her mouth and tied bandages around her mouth and throat. Ngxaki said that at some point he had felt Mathews stop moving and felt "the life leave her body".

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Street/Suburb
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
• Items Stolen
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction
  • On behalf of the State, Advocate Quinton Appels, contends Mathews's murder was carefully planned by Ngxaki and Poswa, and their co-accused, Jan Scheepers (42), and Thandekile Malangemi (41). He listed 77 items stolen from Irene's home, which including a CD player, microwave oven and a TV.
  • Three weeks before Ngxaki murdered Irene, he had been given a suspended sentence for theft. He had also been charged for possessing stolen goods in 1990, 1992, 1996 and 1998 while his accomplice, Poswa, did not have a criminal record.
  • In the Cape High Court, on the 18th November 2004, Mr Justice Burton Fourie, Ngxaki and Poswa guilty of murder, indecent assault, robbery, theft and house-breaking. He sentenced the killers to life imprisonment. Poswa was given an additional 18 years for indecent assault, 15 years for house-breaking and 18 months for stealing Mathews's handbag. Ngxaki was given 18 years for indecent assault, 15 years for house-breaking and three years for stealing the handbag.
  • Before handing down their sentences, Justice Fourie said, "he acknowledged the defence's argument that the accused hadn't planned to kill Mathews but the evidence presented by a state pathologist showed that Mathews had suffered a slow death. She had broken neck bones and bruised skin from strangling and the tightening of the rope around her neck." He also said, "People have been killed in house-breaking incidents for being in their homes at the wrong time, while there had been no motives by burglars to kill them."

Additional Biographical Information:

Links to Media articles:

• http://archive.vn/WgPdp
• http://archive.is/4aR1a
• http://archive.is/vANny