• Simxolele Zitshu pleaded guilty to killing Gqeberha physiotherapist Marolien Schmidt.
• This followed a plea deal with the State.
• He was sentenced to life in prison for murder.

The man accused of killing a Gqeberha physiotherapist on Women's Day pleaded guilty to her murder in the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha on Wednesday, following a plea deal with the State.

Simxolele Zitshu, 31, admitted to murdering Marolien Schmidt by stabbing her several times.

He was sentenced to life in prison for murder, eight years for housebreaking with the intent to steal, and 20 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The sentences will run concurrently, which means that Zitshu will spend life in prison.

Before sentencing, Judge Mandela Makaula asked Zitshu whether it was his evidence that he had killed someone for only R600.

This was because Zitshu Admitted to stealing and selling Schmidt's Samsung Galaxy S21 - which was worth R20 000 - for only R600.

"Is it your evidence that you took a precious life in such a gruesome manner for only R600, that you could have gotten elsewhere?" Makaula asked.

When Zitshu said yes, the deceased's mother, Sineke Schmidt, and her brother, Casper Schmidt, burst into tears in the public gallery.

Makaula adjourned the proceedings when the family started crying.

Her mother's loud sobs could still be heard in the hallway when she left the courtroom.

When the proceedings continued, Zitshu's plea agreement was read into the record.

According to his plea explanation, he stabbed the victim "in the spur of the moment" when she surprised him inside the house.

Makaula interjected and wanted to know who surprised who.

"She surprised him? He was in her house, so how could she be the one who surprised him?"

Furthermore, Zitshu claimed that he did not know there was someone in the house because he only climbed through a window to steal items to sell for food and drugs.

He said he unplugged the TV set in the victim's lounge, but a light was switched on inside the house and he realised that his presence had been detected.

But before he could leave through the same window, "a big white lady" ran at him.

"I got a big fright, realising that I was now in very big trouble. I dropped the television in an attempt to get away. She attacked me and started wrestling with me, screaming the whole time," the court heard.

According to Zitshu, he wrestled with the deceased and she dropped her phone.

He explained that she was trying to subdue him, while he was trying to get away from her, but she was "very strong" and started getting the better of him.

"We ended up falling on the ground because she was overpowering me. I realised that I was not going to get away from this lady as she was very strong. I took my knife from my pocket and started stabbing her in her chest," he said.

"I wanted her to leave me alone, so that I could get away. I also wanted to get a hold of the phone that she dropped. She turned to protect herself and I stabbed her a couple more times, injuring her on her arm and her back.

"She hesitated and stopped attacking me, but continued screaming, so I took the opportunity to jump out the window."

Zitshu said he later sold Schmidt's phone to a Nigerian national for R600.

He was arrested the same night when he went for a walk because he was "worried about what happened".

On his way to the holding cell after his sentencing, Marolien's mother said: "May you die", as he walked down the stairs.

She told News24 they were happy with the sentence, but it made no difference to their lives.

"It still won't bring my Marolien back."