Johannesburg - Details of how an argument led to the death of former Jozi FM DJ Donald Sebolai’s girlfriend were heard in court on Tuesday.
It emerged that Dolly Tshabalala was stabbed to death while the couple were fighting over a knife during an argument.
It was Sebolai’s third day of giving evidence in the high court sitting in Palm Ridge.
Sebolai, 38, is accused of murdering his girlfriend Tshabalala on June 29 last year in his flat in Jabulani, Soweto. He is also facing charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
On Tuesday, Sebolai became emotional while giving testimony, so the court adjourned briefly to allow him to recover.
He said he and Tshabalala had argued about his cellphone. Sebolai had denied her access to his phone and she had accused him of having a new girlfriend.
He said Tshabalala grabbed a breadknife and attacked him. He felt threatened but believed he could overpower her because he thought she was only trying to scare him.
Sebolai said he initially managed to disarm her.
Then they argued again because he wanted her to move out for three weeks while his child from a previous relationship visited him.
He told Tshabalala that, like it or not, his child was coming to visit, and she told him: “You’ll see sh*t.” Tshabalala told him that she had lost her husband and wasn’t prepared to lose him.
She then went to fetch another knife, a steak knife.
“She was walking fast and ready to stab. When I looked at her face, she was very angry,” he told the court.
He stood up as she rushed towards him. “When she came to stab me… I moved backwards and she missed. I fell on the couch… When I got up, I pushed her. She came again, and stabbed. I blocked with my right hand,” he said, adding that he was stabbed while blocking the attack with his hands.
While giving testimony, he sounded as though he was sobbing. State prosecutor advocate Eliza le Roux objected, saying the accused was trying his best to cry.
Judge Cassim Moosa said the accused seemed distressed, which Le Roux accepted.
Sebolai said he told Tshabalala that she had stabbed him but she tried to stab him again.
He said he grabbed the blade but Tshabalala tried to twist the knife. “It was cutting me.”
They wrestled for the knife and he tried to disarm her while he was bleeding.
He said he pulled the knife towards himself while Tshabalala pulled it towards her.
Sebolai said he heard a sound from her and saw blood coming from her thigh.
The trial continues.
The Star