Pietermaritzburg -
A lovers’ quarrel ended tragically on Monday morning when a man killed his fiancée at an entrance to the Liberty Midlands Mall in Pietermaritzburg, then tried to kill himself by jumping off a nearby bridge.
After stabbing 28-year-old Sindi Mshengu twice in the neck at about 10am, he fled the scene in his car, stopped at the bridge on Sanctuary Road and jumped.
Police spokesman, Captain Thulani Zwane, said the man was seriously injured and taken to hospital in a critical condition under police guard.
The man, who can’t be named because he has not yet appeared in court, would be charged with murder, said Zwane.
Mshengu and her partner were to be married and he had started paying lobolo. Both worked at the mall, she at the boom gates and he at The Company Man’s Shop.
ER24’s Russel Meiring said paramedics found a man in his late 20s lying in the slow lane of the N3. He had sustained severe injuries to his back.
While paramedics were treating him, the public alerted paramedics about the stabbing of Mshengu.
She
was dead by the time paramedics arrived at the scene.
The manager of the shop where the man worked, Trevor Pearson, said he had been employed for two or three years on a casual basis as a salesman.
“He was very friendly… reserved.”
Pearson said the man had been asked to come to work on Monday and was meant to start at 9am. He never turned up.
Staff at the boom gates said they were told not to comment about the incident.
The mall’s manager, Umi Khan, confirmed the incident at exit gate 2, which would be closed until the police had completed their investigations.
- The Mercury