Durban - A Kwazulu-Natal woman who was given a life sentence for the murder of her husband wants to get out of prison.
Thenjiwe Griffiths, 31, made an application on Tuesday for bail pending an appeal against her conviction in the Pietermaritzburg High Court
She was convicted of the 2006 murder of her 60-year-old husband, Alan, last December after the court found that she had fabricated a story that he had been killed in a hijacking near Winterton.
Her version was that they had been hijacked and that the hijackers had tried to rape her.
Judge Rishi Seegobin had found that her version was fabricated and concluded she was a cold, calculating killer, who used her elderly husband for his money and when that ran out, he was of no use to her.
Advocate Shane Matthews argued before Judge Seegobin that his client was convicted on circumstantial evidence and her appeal could be successful.
He said she had been out on warning after her arrest and had always attended the trial.
He said even when it had been evident she might possibly be convicted, she had still attended the case and had not absconded.
He said she was a first-time offender, was not a flight risk and did not have a passport.
Concern
“She will not endanger the safety of the public,” he told the court.
Judge Seegobin expressed concern about what would happen if she could not be found when the appeal was finalised.
He referred to the case of Sifiso Zulu, who had been granted bail and gave the authorities the runaround before finally serving his term.
Zulu, a Durban businessman, had been convicted on two counts of culpable homicide and was handed a five-year sentence, of which two years were suspended.
He was found to have been driving his BMW in March 2008 when it skipped a red light, crashing into a bakkie carrying 12 members of the Souls Harbour Ministry, killing two students.
When his appeal was dismissed, Zulu failed to hand himself over to authorities.
State advocate Dorian Paver said Griffiths had not shown that there were exceptional circumstances to permit her release on bail.
He said there was a “real danger” that she might flee.
He said her offer of a paltry R3 000 for bail was laughable, bearing in mind that she had been sentenced to life in prison.
Griffiths and Allan had met at a club where prostitutes touted for business and were married in April 2005.
The evidence in court was that soon afterwards, he wanted a divorce because she was abusive and assaulted him.
Judgment on bail was reserved.
The Mercury