Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times, South Africa - November 8, 1998
Prega Govender
Minutes after Maritzburg magistrate Henry Sithole sentenced Sithembiso Prince Mbokazi to three years' correctional supervision, the 18-year-old said there was no place in his heart to forgive his former lover, Dr Tin Maung Maung.
In an interview, Mbokazi admitted that in a fit of rage he had shattered the Chinese doctor's skull with a spade at his home near New Hanover in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands in June 1996.
The tall, athletic teenager said he despised the 45-year-old doctor for condemning him to certain death.
"He effectively gave me the death sentence. My life has been shattered and I am ashamed to face my family and friends," a tearful Mbokazi said.
Mbokazi, who was a Grade 8 pupil at a Maritzburg high school when he had a four-month relationship with the doctor, said he longed to resume his education.
"I feel very sick at times and I know that I do not have a long time to live, but I am determined to make the most of it. I want to go back to school again."
In a statement which was handed to the court, Mbokazi said he had formed an intimate homosexual relationship at the insistence of the doctor. But he later developed a sexually transmitted disease.
"I phoned Dr Maung Maung because I was infected with venereal warts and sores, and I was in extreme pain," he said.
Mbokazi said Maung Maung examined him in his lounge and told him his condition was serious. The doctor then told him that he was HIV positive.
"He admitted to me he was an AIDS carrier, and said he was extremely sorry for my condition. He could not explain to me why he had infected me and forced me into a relationship which I had detested from the outset," he said.
Mbokazi said the doctor then told him he needed a partner.
"I began to cry, and he also sobbed. I wanted to know from him why he did not use a condom and why he did not allow me to use one when we had sex.
"His only reply was that the damage had been done. My whole life folded in front of me, and I wanted revenge and decided to kill the doctor," he said.
"I hit him on his head several times with a spade and he fell to the floor.
"I then left his house in his car," the teenager said.
Mbokazi's attorney, Latif Khan, said the boy had committed the murder "on the spur of the moment and out of sheer anger".
"The murder was not premeditated. It was committed when he realised that the deceased had passed a death sentence on him. The deceased was a qualified doctor whom one would have expected to heal and not to hurt someone."
"He chose a young, innocent and naive person of tender age who could easily be manipulated to satisfy his bizarre lust and desire. The doctor was the author of his own misfortune," Khan said.
Prosecutor Zubeida Khan said the circumstances were "unique" and conceded the doctor had signed Mbokazi's "death warrant".
Mbokazi was also sentenced to 32 hours of community service a month.
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