Durban — The wife of a man who was shot in the face and died allegedly at the hands of his short-time mistress confronted the accused as she walked out of the courtroom of the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
“I want you to tell me, woman to woman, why you did what you did to my husband of 22 years?” Martha Madikizela asked.
It is alleged that on March 5, at the Uniking Flats on King Road in Pinetown, Nomqondiso Pretty Mthethwa killed Luvuyo Mandlenkosi Madikizela by shooting him in the face or head with his own gun.
The mother of three had appeared in court where the matter was adjourned to July 19 for further investigations as the post-mortem report, crime-scene photo album, and the primer residue (gunshot residue) were still outstanding.
Speaking outside court to the Daily News, Madikizela said she became aware of Mthethwa’s existence only after the shooting.
She said as far she knew the last thing Mthethwa had said to her husband before the shot rang out was that he had undermined her by answering his wife’s phone call in her presence.
Madikizela said the pair had been returning from a night out and her husband had forgotten the flat keys in his car. He had given Mthethwa his belongings, including his firearm, to hold while he went to fetch the keys.
“I am filled with questions as to what happened. How do you enter into a relationship with a married person who tells you they are married and you still agree to be in that relationship but yet you become jealous wanting him to be yours alone? And even when you enter his home, you see there is a woman in the house, even though I was not physically there because I was running his business in Johannesburg while he ran the one here in Durban,” Madikizela said.
She said they had two children, aged 18 and 13, and her husband had a son, aged 30.
Madikizela said her husband’s business called for him to have a gun. He repaired lifts and would sometimes be called out at night, and sometimes to unsafe areas.
“On that day of the shooting, her husband and another person had picked her (Mthethwa) up going to a party and it was the wee hours of the morning when this happened.
“All she said to me when I confronted her was that she was afraid, but my intent was not to instil fear or intimidate her, I just wanted her to talk to me. She said she made a mistake and didn’t like what happened, and if he had not given her his gun it might not have happened. Yes, he handed her the gun, but to shoot him right in the face, she could have shot in the air or shot him in the leg.”
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