Man jailed for ripping wife’s stomach open

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A VILLAGER from Robert Sinyoka on the outskirts of Bulawayo has been slapped with an effective 12-year jail term for trying to kill his estranged wife after ripping her stomach open with an okapi knife.

A VILLAGER from Robert Sinyoka on the outskirts of Bulawayo has been slapped with an effective 12-year jail term for trying to kill his estranged wife after ripping her stomach open with an okapi knife. STAFF REPORTER

Vusumuzi Tusi (48) had admitted attacking his wife Siphiwe Ndlovu (48) with a knife saying he was angered after she had allegedly held him while being attacked by her new boyfriend Simon Dube.

Tusi appeared before Bulawayo Regional Curt magistrate Sikhumbuzo Nyathi and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday. Three years were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.

In sentencing him, Nyathi said Ndlovu told the court that Tusi had threatened to kill her the day before the stabbing and she had not gone to the market where she usually sold vegetables in fear.

“She said she only went to the market to meet her children whom she had sent to sell vegetables as she was worried by their delay coming home,” Nyathi said.

“That is when she said she received a call from her boyfriend and they agreed to meet at the business centre where she was later stabbed by the accused.”

He said Ndlovu’s evidence was corroborated by her boyfriend and the two would not have just lied against Tusi.

“It was the complainant’s evidence that the accused had attacked her the previous day and had called her threatening to kill her,” Nyathi said. Unfortunately accused’s story is not corroborated as complainant and her boyfriend denied that the boyfriend was carrying an iron bar which he wanted to use to attack accused.

“The accounts given by complainant and her boyfriend are more believable than that of accused. Accused stabbed complainant about seven times.

“Three days earlier you had seen her with her boyfriend and later in the night you laid ambush and stabbed her.

“You stabbed her and after that you hid in the bush and only went home to get food and you were arrested a week later.

“If you had not done the attack intentionally, you would have visited the police after stabbing her. It is clear that you intended to kill complainant.”

Nyathi said the court proved that Tusi’s defence was false and showed that he was not remorseful.

“Accordingly, you are found guilty for attempting to kill complainant. Cases of attempted murder are prevalent these days and they mostly happen at drinking spots where people will be committing them under the influence of alcohol,” he said.

“People fight over ending of relationships and some do not accept that a relationship is over.”

Prosecutor Masimba Saruaka told the court that on April 4 2014 at around 8pm, Tusi got information that Ndlovu was seeing another man and he armed himself with a knife and went to their place.

He lay in ambush at a distance and when Ndlovu came out of the house and walked towards where her lover had parked his car close to the business centre, Tusi intercepted her and stabbed her seven times in the stomach as well as in both her legs and right arm.

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