A jealous boyfriend who brutally murdered his partner after wrongly believing she was having an affair has been jailed for life.
Tanaka Zivanai, 32, repeatedly stabbed Zanele Sibanda, 28, after confronting her in a Gloucester street.
Bristol Crown Court heard the attack took place in the early hours of August 27 last year in the Tredworth area of the city in front of shocked onlookers.
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 on her.
“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 to be 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 and began a relationship after getting jobs as care workers.
They moved into a flat together in Tredworth and neighbours would often hear a man shouting and a woman crying.
On one occasion neighbours heard the defendant shouting: “Have you been f****** someone else?”
On another occasion, the mother-of-two was visiting a friend and the defendant phoned her and shouted: “I’ll kill you if you come here, don’t come back to this house. Stay wherever the f*** you are. You come back, I’ll kill you.”
On the evening of the murder, neighbours heard shouting and swearing and saw a man and woman in the street.
CCTV in the local area captures the man and woman in the street and often returning to a nearby flat as the argument continues.
A short time later neighbours heard a woman screaming and saw a man kneeling on the floor with a woman in his lap, with him saying: “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,” Mr Shellard said.
“He described how the defendant started to cut himself.
“He said how he had seen the defendant stab the woman repeatedly.
“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.”
Police officers and paramedics attempted to save Ms Sibanda’s life but she was declared dead at the scene of the attack at the junction of Paul Street and Tarrington Road.
A post-mortem examination found Ms Sibanda had died from multiple stab wounds to the head, throat, body and arms.
Zivanai, of Dora Walk, Tredworth, Gloucester had previously pleaded guilty to murder and possession of a knife in a public place.
John Burton KC, defending, said the murder was committed in “horrific circumstances”.
“He not only feels genuine remorse for this offence, but there’s a deep seated grief which almost appeared at the very start, even though he was the cause of this death,” he said.
“Mr Zivanai clearly lost complete control of himself, not in the legal sense, but he completely lost control of himself in a literal sense and caused this young lady’s death.”
Judge William Hart jailed Zivanai for life and told him he would serve a minimum of 20 years and 10 months’ imprisonment before he could be considered for parole.
“You were angry and aggressive, and she was cowed by your behaviour,” the judge said.
“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.
“You attacked Ms Sibanda with a knife which you had brought with you to that location from your home.
“The circumstances of this poor young woman’s killing were horrific.”
