Online Reporter
Danisa Masuku [email protected]
A 47-year-old Bulawayo woman who fatally stabbed her lover during a domestic dispute over US$1 intended to buy an avocado has been sentenced to an effective five years in prison.
Ntombikayise Ndlovu of Njube suburb was originally charged with murder but was convicted of the lesser offence of culpable homicide by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Naison Chivayo.
Justice Chivayo sentenced Ndlovu to eight years’ imprisonment, of which three years were suspended for five years on condition that she does not commit a similar offence during that period, leaving her to serve an effective five-year prison term.
In his judgment, Justice Chivayo ruled that the State had failed to prove the essential elements of murder beyond reasonable doubt as there was no eyewitness evidence directly linking Ndlovu to the fatal stabbing.
However, the court found that the State had successfully proved the offence of culpable homicide.
The judge also noted that Ndlovu’s defence was weakened by inconsistencies in her account of the incident.
The court heard that she initially claimed the deceased had accidentally stabbed himself during a struggle, but later stated that she did not know how he sustained the fatal injury.
In aggravation, the State argued that Ndlovu had attempted to conceal evidence by hiding the knife allegedly used in the attack.
“By hiding the knife, it proves that she had planned to carry out the offence and she used a weapon in the form of a knife to commit the crime. The offender is not a credible witness because at one point she told the court that the deceased accidentally stabbed himself while they were fighting, and later told the court she did not know how the deceased got stabbed,” the State submitted.
The prosecution urged the court to impose a custodial sentence, arguing that domestic disputes should be resolved peacefully rather than through violence.
“The State prays for a custodial sentence and urges lovers to solve their disagreements amicably rather than taking the law into their own hands, as that leads to the unnecessary loss of life,” the prosecutor said.
The court heard that on June 12 last year, at about 10pm, Ndlovu and the deceased had finished supper before he retired to his bedroom.
A dispute later arose after Ndlovu accused him of using US$1, which she had given him to buy an avocado, to purchase cigarettes instead.
The disagreement escalated into a physical altercation. According to court papers, Ndlovu armed herself with a kitchen knife and stabbed the deceased once on the lower left side of the chest.
A relative, who had been called into the room by Ndlovu, found the deceased lying on the floor, bleeding from the chest and crying for help. An ambulance was summoned to the scene, but paramedics pronounced him dead on arrival.
The incident was subsequently reported to the police, leading to Ndlovu’s arrest.
