Durban — The Durban High Court was to hand down a sentence on Wednesday to Sibusiso Bongekhaya Mvubu who stabbed his wife 13 times, killing her.
She also suffered blunt force trauma to the head, which is unaccounted for in the version Mvubu told the court.
On Monday he was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Philisiwe Mvubu who was left in a pool of blood after he stabbed her repeatedly.
He left her in their locked KwaMakhutha home and hitch-hiked to Estcourt to his sister’s home.
The court heard how he drove and abandoned his car on Umbilo Road before boarding a taxi to Pietermaritzburg where he then hitch-hiked.
An 11-year-old child who lived with the couple, raised the alarm after he saw blood spats and his aunt’s shoe outside the house.
Neighbours helped the little boy gain access to the locked house through a small bedroom window and he was able to open the kitchen door. When neighbours entered, they found the dead woman covered with a blanket on the floor of her bedroom.
Throughout the trial, Sibusiso maintained that he had stabbed his wife only once in the neck, and when she fell, she was accidentally stabbed more times because she fell on the knife he was carrying.
He had pleaded not guilty, claiming that it was self-defence, adding that if he “had not taken the knife from her she would have killed me, my life was in danger”.
Before the murder on July 1 last year, police had accompanied Philisiwe to her home to hand over a protection order to her husband as he had allegedly wanted to pour boiling water on her.
He refused to sign the interim protection order.
The court had also previously heard how Philisiwe had been sleeping at her neighbour’s house since June 14 until the day she was murdered.
When the trial began on the last day of October, the State took a witness through the scene photo album, upsetting relatives in the gallery who cried and consoled each other.
On Tuesday the family welcomed Monday’s guilty verdict, adding that they were hoping for a harsh and lengthy sentence that would send a strong message on gender-based violence.
Philisiwe’s aunt, Fikile Hlongwa said Sibusiso deserved a life sentence and hoped that the court would not consider the fact that he was a first-time offender, as argued by his defence.
“This whole thing has been draining. I don’t care if he is a first-time offender, he started with killing. He killed my sister’s child with such brutality, when she was supporting him and his children financially. He ran away, which shows he has no remorse, instead he had been lying through the trial,” she said.
Philisiwe’s sister Mabongi Mnyandu echoed her aunt’s sentiments, saying that with the trial done, it felt like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.
Daily News
Now watch: