Durban — The Pinetown woman who was killed in January, allegedly by her SANDF husband, was shot six times and had bullet wounds to her chest and neck.
This was revealed on Tuesday in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court when magistrate Wendolyn Robinson read out the charges levelled against accused Lwanda Mxolisi Zungu by the State ahead of what had been expected to be his bail application.
Zungu is charged with murder read under the Domestic Violence Act which the State alleges was premeditated.
However, Zungu’s bail application was yet to be heard because his defence counsel, advocate Muzi Mzelemu, made an application before the accused’s bail bid could be heard.
Zungu had previously abandoned bail. Then at his last appearance earlier in March he made an about-turn indicating that he wanted to apply for bail.
He is accused of shooting and killing his wife, Tania Msane Zungu, in their Pinetown home while his two children and their grandmother Gwen Msane were in the house.
After that, he ran away and later handed himself over to police.
The fact that Zungu faces premeditated murder, means that the bail application falls within the ambit of Schedule 6 of the Criminal Procedure Act as opposed to just a murder which falls under Schedule 5.
Schedule 5 bail applications call for the accused to provide reasons and proof to the court that their release on bail is in the interest of justice, whereas in a Schedule 6 bail application above proving the interest of justice, an accused has to present the court with exceptional and compelling circumstances that permit their release on bail.
Mzelemu, in the application that he brought before the court, said that the State needed to provide its basis for charging his client with premeditated murder even before the bail application can be heard.
He argued that the word premeditated was added to the charge sheet “just this morning”.
The matter was rolled over to Wednesday when the bail application could possibly be heard after the court rules on which schedule the application falls under.
The couple are said to have been married for more than 10 years, and last year they renewed their vows.
It’s alleged that Zungu found out that Tania was cheating on him with someone close to him and that might have been one of the reasons why she was killed.
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Daily News