Zimbabwean national, Andrea Imbayarwo (Andrew Ndlovu), was sentenced to a double life imprisonment on 21 April 2022, eight years after killing and raping British national Christine Robinson at her game lodge on 30 July 2014 in Limpopo, South Africa.
Judge Marisa Naudé-Odendaal sentenced Imbayarwo, also known as Andrew Ndlovu, in the Polokwane High Court today to a well-deserved double life sentence after being found guilty of murder and rape on Tuesday. She said that she regards the crime as heinous, brutal and shocking to the community of Thabazimbi, South Africa and abroad. Imbayarwo applied for leave to appeal the sentence, but Judge Naudé-Odendaal refused it, citing that no other court in the country can come to another conclusion other than the double life sentence.
“We are very pleased with this. Nothing less than a life sentence would serve as sufficient punishment for Ndlovu and thus we totally welcome the double life sentence. Seeing that less than 8% of these cases have successful convictions, we are grateful for a little justice. No sentence, however, will ever bring her back. Gender-based violence and fe-micide (GBVF) is a tragedy that is on the rise in South Africa where innocent women and children are exploited and even killed on a daily basis,” said Ian Cameron, director of community safety at Action Society. The civil rights organisation was appointed by Robinson’s family earlier this month to do a watching brief on the case, specifically for the trial.
After her husband passed away, Christine Robinson, retired British teacher, continued running the game lodge they bought in Thabazimbi in 2002. Andrew Ndlovu, employed gardener of the lodge at that time, raped and brutally slit her throat on 30 July 2014. Lehanne Sergison, Robinson’s niece, used Facebook to track down Ndlovu. After failed police attempts Ndlovu was only found by Ian Cameron on 30 July 2020, following a social media post of Sergison, when shortly after posting a member of the public contacted Cameron with a tip-off of Ndlovu’s whereabouts. Together with a team consisting of SAPS members, Ian Cameron from Action Society and ex-police member, Colonel Sakkie Louwrens, Ndlovu was arrested exactly 6 years after slaughtering and raping Christine Robinson.
Action Society mourns the death of an innocent woman who was – exactly as her tombstone in Liverpool says — cruelly taken from us.
“This just never should have happened. In a country with 153 rapes reported daily and eight women murdered, Action Society will keep on talking and fighting for those who are not able to. Rapists and murderers like Ndlovu do not belong in our society. Where Christine’s family describes her as ‘an inspiration to us all’, her case is also an inspiration to Action Society to keep on fighting for justice.”
