Sidumisile Mabena
Dalyn Chigwizura
IT can only happen in Cowdray Park!
A 28-year-old woman stole US$15 000 from her husband (42), abandoned the marital home to paint the town red with the windfall and even bought herself a car.
Thandeka Ncube did not care that her husband, Honest Mathe, had set the money aside to extend their house.
Eve and Delilah would have been eager students if she held a masterclass in “How to totally betray your man.”
Like a rabid hyena, she went through the money in less than a week, doing God-knows-what.
Perhaps it is fitting that she bought herself a Honda Fit, a vehicle largely associated with dishonesty and wrong turns.
Even veteran Western Commonage Magistrate Jeconia Prince Ncube, who has heard many strange cases in his time, was dumbfounded by the magnitude of Thandeka’s perfidy. She pleaded guilty to a charge of unreasonable disposal of household effects.
Prosecuting, Tafara Dzimbanhete told the court that Thandeka was the wife of the complainant.
He said on March 18, 2026, Mathe arrived home from work with US$15 000, which he said he would use to extend the matrimonial home. He placed the money inside a wardrobe that he locked, and pocketed the key.
Maybe if he had seen the way his wife’s eyes probably lit up at all that cash, he would have dug a secret hole and buried it instead.
The court heard that on March 24, 2026, at around 6 PM, Mathe checked for the wardrobe keys and discovered that Thandeka had picked his pocket and taken them. Sweating buckets and with his heart palpitating, his worst fears were confirmed when he opened the wardrobe and saw no sign of the cash.
He had only one suspect, Thandeka, who had disappeared.
Quicker than a flash, he rushed to make a police report.
Investigations led to Thandeka’s arrest and the recovery of the Honda Fit valued at US$7 520. Of the rest of the money, there was not even a single red cent.
Straight – faced, Thandeka begged the court for a non-custodial sentence, saying she was “married” and would reimburse her husband.
A bemused Magistrate Ncube sentenced her to nine months in prison, suspending three months for three years on condition that she does not commit a similar offence within that period. He suspended the remaining six months on condition that she completes 210 hours of community service at Cowdray Park Health Centre, starting Wednesday 29 April 2026.
