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Man butchers wife on witchcraft claim

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SIGANGENI – In another gruesome incident, a man killed his wife with a spade in front of her grandchildren.


Khopho Msibi is accused of murdering his wife Pauline. “We are still traumatised by the incident and trying to figure out what could have possessed him to do such a thing,” said the mother of the alleged killer. She related how she was sitting outside their home when she heard the children crying and screaming. Upon asking what was happening, she was told by the children that their grandmother had been hacked by their grandfather and was lying in a pool of blood.


Information gathered from the couple’s elder son, Jabulani Msibi was that Pauline had gone to fetch firewood from a nearby forest with her grandchildren only to be attacked by his father on her way back home. “She was just a few metres from the gate when my father emerged from the forest and repeatedly hacked her on the head. She tried to run but unfortunately she tripped and fell.”


The grandchildren said after their grandfather had finished hacking her, he just said, “Ngitokubulala mine, loosely translated to mean ‘I will kill you’.”
When Jabulani rushed to the scene he found his mother covered in blood, “I think she lost too much blood and would not have survived even if she was rushed to hospital.”


It is claimed that Msibi frequently complained that his wife was bewitching him but evidence to that effect was never brought forward; however, he is said to have reported the matter to the royal kraal. According to his son, he told the royal kraal that they must order her family to take her back as he was no longer happy with her presence.


Information from Phazamisa Mhlanga, headman (indvuna) is that the matter was attended to by the zonal leader (sigcuma). He said Msibi was friendly with (tinyanga) traditional healers. It is said the day before the murder he went to sleep at a traditional healer’s home.
The following day, upon his return home, his younger wife allegedly told him they couldn’t sleep as the yard was filled with holes dug by a mole. This seemed to propel Msibi to believe that his first wife practised witchcraft and that is when he took his spade and looked for the deceased.


Mhlanga further said the children of the older wife were baying for the younger wife’s blood as they felt she was responsible for their mother’s death. Mhlanga said, as a result, some community police took the younger wife to her parental home for her safety. Efforts to get comment from her proved futile as her cellphone was off.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Wendy Hleta confirmed the matter.

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