Cape Town - Thandi Maqubela's conduct in the days around the death of her acting judge husband was extremely untoward, the Western Cape High Court heard on Monday.
Prosecutor Bonnie Currie-Gamwo said Maqubela acted as though it was “business as usual' when told a few days before her husband's death in June 2009 that he had been hospitalised.
She made no phone calls to any hospital or security staff at his flat to determine his whereabouts.
Currie-Gamwo said the evidence showed she did not phone her husband's friends, family or acquaintances to let them know or to find out more information.
Maqubela previously testified that she went to Groote Schuur hospital to find him.
“My submission is she never went there, based on cellphone evidence,” Currie-Gamwo said in closing argument.
“The only inference to be drawn is she did not bother to go find the deceased because she knew where he was all along.”
Maqubela is charged with murder, forgery, and fraud. Her co-accused, her business associate Vela Mabena, is charged with murder.
Patrick Maqubela's body was found in his apartment in Bantry Bay on June 7, 2009. The State alleges he was suffocated with a piece of clingwrap on June 5.
The court heard that the acting judge's registrar phoned him when he did not arrive for work at the Western Cape High Court on Friday, June 5, 2009. The call went straight to voicemail.
Phone records showed a four-second call was placed from Thandi Maqubela's phone to the high court a short while later, and that the acting judge's voicemail was then checked.
His registrar testified that she then received a call from the judge's phone, but that a woman calling herself “Amanda” was on the line and told her he had been hospitalised.
His registrar phoned Thandi Maqubela to inform her of the development.
Currie-Gamwo said Maqubela also lied about not having Mabena's cellphone number when she gave a statement to the police the following Monday, despite not being a suspect at the time.
Regarding Mabena, the State said he had not given a reasonable explanation for the large number of calls made between him and Thandi Maqubela during that period.
Murphy said previous testimony placed Mabena in the acting judge's flat the day of his death, for only five to 20 minutes, to pick up a book.
“You're asking me to convict accused two (Mabena) on the basis he was there a short amount of time and (because of) the suspicious communication with accused number one (Maqubela)?” he asked the prosecutor, who replied in the affirmative.
Closing argument resumes on Tuesday.
Sapa