Two Nyanga children, aged 11 and 14, will grow up without their mother after their stepfather stabbed her to death.
He handed himself over to police.
Neighbours found Phindiwe Sible’s body on
the floor of their two-bedroom home, with one stab wound
on the left of her upper body.
Police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk said: “The couple had an argument and a fight, with the man ending up stabbing his wife.”
Unathi Sible appeared in the Athlone Magistrate's Court yesterday, and his case was adjourned until Monday.
Phindiwe Sible’s eldest sister, Cynthia Nojaholo, 50, said her sister had retur* ed from a shopping centre when her husband came home furious, and an argument ensued during which she was stabbed.
The children were not at home at the time.
“After what he did he ran outside and called the neighbours, before calling someone who works as a paramedic to resuscitate her, but unfortunately that paramedic could do nothing to save her life,” said Nojaholo.
“He would not tell why he did it.
“He only says it was not intentional, but we think the stabbing was deliberate.
“We are saddened by what he did because my sister has two young children who are crying constantly and asking when is their mother going to be home.
“He should have thought before doing what he did. The children are crying every day, and what happened pains them.
“When he stabbed their mother he did not care about what would happen to the children because they are not his.”
According to Phindiwe’s brother, Brian Nojaholo, 35, the husband told their family he wanted to scare her, but not kill her.
“You cannot scare someone by stabbing them, because that could have circumstances like it happened now. He showed that he is a cruel man,” said Brian.
In some other unrelated incidents, police arrested six suspects involved in cases of rape, and another one
for attempted murder, in Nyanga.
Van Wyk said one suspect, aged 25, was arrested after he had allegedly raped a teenage boy, whom he grabbed and pulled outside a tavern.
“The suspect had called the victim earlier, requesting the teenager to accompany him to another section of the shebeen, but the victim refused. The suspect then used an opportunity while the victim was outside the tavern to help himself.
“The suspect allegedly kept the victim captive until the following day,” he said, adding that another 20-year-old suspect was arrested on Saturday after he had allegedly raped a teenage girl while she was on her way to her friend’s house.