Durban — A police officer has testified that murdered Philisiwe Mvubu was visibly “scared and frightened” and teary-eyed as her husband on trial for her alleged murder refused to sign an interim protection order in front of police some 10 days before she was killed.
Sibusiso Bongekhaya Mvubu is currently on trial in the Durban High Court.
Philisiwe allegedly had a stab wound to the abdomen, one on the left side of her neck and a gaping open wound on the front of her neck.
In the dock Sergeant Qhamukile Khumalo on Monday told the court that before the alleged murder on July 1 last year, she and her colleagues had accompanied Philisiwe to her home to hand over a protection order to her husband as he had allegedly wanted to pour hot water on her.
This had been 10 days before the woman was found by neighbours in her house face down in a pool of blood covered in a blanket.
Khumalo testified that Mvubu had refused to sign the document and stormed out of the house.
Mvubu, who had pleaded not guilty through his Legal Aid attorney Zeera Fareed, denied abusing Philisiwe whom he had been in a relationship with for eight years.
“She accused me of boiling water on her, I deny this.”
He told the court that after he had stabbed the woman in the neck in self-defence, he took his bloodied clothes off and went to the clinic as he had been injured on his thumb and wanted medical attention.
However, he alleges that after seeing the clinic was busy he left and boarded a taxi to the Durban central business district and then another going to Estcourt to his sister’s house.
“I was afraid to report to the police… I spent two nights in a hostel in Estcourt as I didn’t know where my sister’s house was. I borrowed a phone and spoke to her, she fetched me and I told her what happened. She advised me to hand myself over to the police. On July 5 I handed myself over to the police. It was not my intention to kill the deceased.”
Mvubu admitted to stabbing his wife once in the neck and has told the court “I do not know how she sustained injuries as outlined in the post-mortem report.”
Daily News