A KwaZulu-Natal man who killed his girlfriend seems to have taken a leaf out of Oscar Pistorius’s defence strategy.
|||A KwaZulu-Natal man who killed his girlfriend seems to have taken a leaf out of Oscar Pistorius’s defence strategy.
Themba Mthethwa, of Zululand, claims that on the night that he killed Thuli Mkhwanazi he mistook her for an intruder when she returned to bed after going to the toilet, stabbing her to death.
Mthethwa, who has been charged with murder, is expected to be taken to Fort Napier in Pietermaritzburg for a mental evaluation next week.
The scenario of the Zululand incident is very similar to that of double-amputee track star Oscar Pistorius who shot his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp last year.
The disgraced Paralympian has admitted to shooting Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door, but told police he was acting in self-defence against what he thought was an intruder. Prosecutors have accused him of premeditated murder for firing into the door, hitting Steenkamp, 29, in the head, hip and arm.
He is expected to appear in court on August 19 – on what would have been Steenkamp’s 30th birthday.
Mkhwanazi, 24, met her fate last week while returning from an outside toilet just after 4am.
She was staying with her boyfriend at his Mtubatuba home when he allegedly stabbed her three times with a spear as she walked back inside his house.
“She sustained three stab wounds to her chest,” said police spokesman captain Jabulani Mdletshe. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mdletshe said that although the pair had recently started dating, Mkhwanazi’s family did not approve of the relationship.
Before moving in with him, Mkhwanazi’s relatives had warned her about his temperamental behaviour.
Mdletshe said her body was found in the yard by a neighbour in the morning.
The neighbour, who also described Mthethwa as short-tempered, said he was walking past the house just after 6am when he noticed something lying in Mthethewa’s yard.
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When he saw the house door open, Muzikayise said he though the couple had been attacked at night.
“I was surprised when I saw Themba sitting on his bed,” he said.
When he alerted Mthethwa about his girlfriend’s lifeless body, Muzikayise said the man just sat on his bed, dazed.
Mdletshe said that when police arrived at the scene, a sobbing Mthethwa said he had mistaken his girlfriend for an intruder. He was arrested and charged with murder.
He appeared in the Mtubatuba Magistrate’s Court this week where he was denied bail.
Muzikayise questioned how Mthethwa could not have seen that it was his girlfriend.
“Surely she cried out and after stabbing her once he would have realised that it was her,” he said. - Independent on Saturday