Prosecutor Mokiya Mokiya told court that the incident took place on Independence Day last year. The assault occurred next to a water standpipe at Etsha 6 while the estranged couple were heading to the victim's yard.
Passing sentence, Magistrate Nsikelelo Moyo said that most women have been maimed because of assaults and grievous harm caused by their lovers. He said that such cruel activities were caused by men's failure to control their emotions, culminating in the murder of women.
"By sentencing you we need to send a message to perpetrators of similar offences that assaulting women is a serious offence," he said. Thinjavanga will appear again on Thursday for mention, on charges of arson and attempted murder.
In the same court, a 47-year-old mother of a Bombadi girl ward, who was defiled and impregnated at the age of 15, pleaded for the detention of the accused after complaining that he was harassing her family.
Enametse Bonang, who has been on bail since his arraignment in 2005, was last Wednesday taken into custody because he had forfeited his bail conditions.
The girl's mother had told court that whenever Bonang arrived at her home he would insult her, demanding to see his girlfriend and the child. Recently, the accused was apprehended and taken to the police by the community, after allegations of stealing the girlfriend's mother's mobile phone and threatening to stab her with a knife.
