Bid to set wife ablaze earns hubby jail term

Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
AN Epworth man, who doused his wife with paraffin before striking a match to set her ablaze for failure to prepare him breakfast, was yesterday jailed for an effective 12 months.

Tendai Mupeteri (34) of Overspill, Epworth, woke up his wife Siphelani Mutsuta early in the morning last week demanding breakfast.

Both husband and wife who are unemployed, exchanged harsh words after the wife told him there was no food in the house.

Mupeteri pleaded guilty to contravening the Domestic Violence Act when he appeared before magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe.

He was sentenced to 15 months behind bars, but three months were set aside on condition of good behaviour, leaving Mupeteri with 12 months to serve behind bars.

Mr Mahwe asked him why he committed the offence and in response Mupeteri said he wanted to kill himself, not his wife.

“I really do not know how it happened but I intended to set myself on fire due to the misunderstanding. I even doused myself with paraffin. I did not want to kill my wife,” he said.

In passing sentence, Mr Mahwe said cases of domestic violence were on the rise hence the need to pass harsh penalties to send a message to would-be offenders.

The court heard that on June 25 at around 4am, Mupeteri woke up his wife and questioned why she was not preparing breakfast for him. When Mutsuta told her husband that there was nothing to cook an altercation ensued which generated into a fist fight.

Mupeteri slapped and punched his wife and suddenly grabbed a container full of paraffin that he poured all over his wife’s body.

Mupeteri then lit a match intending to set Mutsuta on fire and she wrestled him in a bid to extinguish the match.

She overpowered him and bolted out of the house.