Durban — When the trial against a man alleged to have stabbed and killed his wife resumed in the Durban High Court, presiding Judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati was to rule on an application on the admissibility of the interim protection order obtained by the deceased against the accused some nine days before her death.
Sibusiso Bongekhaya Mvubu is on trial for the murder of his wife Philisiwe Mvubu.
The State’s evidence is that the woman sustained at least eight stab wounds, while in his version Mvubu said he stabbed his wife once in the neck and when she fell she was accidentally stabbed as she fell on the knife he was carrying.
Before the alleged 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.
At the time, Mvubu refused to sign the protection order. This week in court before the matter was adjourned to November 15, Mvubu through his defence indicated he was disputing the contents of the protection order, that he had tried to pour hot water on Philisiwe.
Senior State advocate Krishen Shah made the application for the admissibility of the contents of the protection order as hearsay evidence on the basis that it would be before the court even if Philisiwe was alive, adding that having this evidence admissible would not prejudice Mvubu.
Previously State witness Nompumelelo Mosia, under cross-examination, had answered that Philisiwe since June 14 last year had been sleeping at her house until the day of the murder, because Mvubu had poured a 20-litre bucket of water on her, taken her phone, locked her outside the house and switched off the lights.
And at the time, Mvubu’s defence brought to the court’s attention that in the two statements the witness made to police, she did not mention that Philisiwe had water poured over her and was locked outside her home by the accused.
All of this information, while not in the statements of Mosia, who is Philisiwe’s neighbour and friend of 11 years, was contained in the report made to an uMbumbulu Magistrate’s Court clerk, which formed part of the interim protection order that Mvubu refused to sign.
In his application this week, Shah argued that the contents of the report of which Mvubu was disputing the veracity did not form part of the charge, adding that it was, however, consistent with Mosai’s testimony on the water being poured on Philisiwe.
“This is a complaint that the deceased made to domestic violence.
“She was seemingly okay to be at home during the day but was scared at night. It is in the interest of justice that this is admissible because it tells us what led to the alleged murder, and the complaints the deceased made should be admissible in these proceedings. There is nothing saying that the deceased was not in her sound mind when she made these,” said Shah.
Mvubu’s defence, Zeera Fareed, argued that the accused disputed that he poured water on Philisiwe.
“The defence will accept that the protection order was taken, admits to not signing, however as an exhibit it is hearsay evidence … the accused will be prejudiced.”
After Poyo-Dlwati rules on the application and the trial resumes, the State is expected to call, among witnesses, the child who climbed into the house through a bedroom window opening from the inside, for neighbours to find Philisiwe lying face down in a pool of blood covered with a blanket.
The defence in the matter has no witnesses and Mvubu was expected to take the stand.
Daily News