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Auxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
A WOMAN allegedly killed her husband in cold blood after she overheard him telling his mother that he had sired a child out of wedlock, a court has heard. Elizabeth Mbulayi, 28, who had spent Christmas Day in 2013 drinking beer with her husband Simbarashe Denhere allegedly killed him in the early hours of Boxing Day by stabbing him once in the chest with a kitchen knife.

This was heard when Mbulayi appeared before Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva facing a murder charge. Justice Takuva postponed judgment indefinitely.

Mbulayi through her pro-deo lawyer, Wish Ndongwe, pleaded not guilty and pleaded for a lesser charge of culpable homicide. She claimed that Denhere provoked her by beating her with a fan stand and because of anger she failed to control herself and stabbed him once in the chest.

Testifying, Denhere’s mother, Alice Phiri, told the court that on Christmas Day in 2013 the couple visited her in Nkulumane suburb towards midnight. “When they came home I was already sleeping but I woke up and served them food. Immediately the phone rang and my daughter-in-law went out to answer her phone. That’s when my son, Simba went to the bedroom and lay on the bed facing up,” said Phiri.

She said she rushed to the bedroom when he called her in an unusual tone.

“When I got into the room, he told me that he was stressed. He disclosed that he had impregnated and sired a child out of wedlock. He insisted that I call his younger brother Mandela to tell him the issue but he (the younger brother) simply ignored us and went out, by then my daughter-in-law was back,” said Phiri.

She said Mbulayi whom she knew as Chipo Makhabo looked sad. Phiri said she suspected that either she had overheard Denhere speaking about the out-of-wedlock baby or was not happy about the groceries her son had bought her.

She said her son insisted on sleeping at his mother’s place but his wife dragged him off the bed. The couple went to their home in Nketa 9 suburb where the gruesome murder occurred.

Mbulayi and Denhere had no child from their five-year union. Phiri said Mbulayi once attempted to scald her son with cooking oil. “She’s a very harsh woman, my son was a very quiet person. She’s short-tempered,” said Phiri.

For the state, Nokuthaba Ngwenya, told the court that on Christmas Day in 2013, Mbulayi and Denhere left their home at about 8AM for Old Pumula where Denhere intended to have his company car repaired.

The court was told that soon after leaving their car with the mechanic, the couple went to a local beer garden. “Mbulayi and Denhere went back to Pumula where they started drinking beer and the latter began accusing his wife of dating other men,” said Ngwenya.

The court heard that at around 1AM, the couple went home and the dispute escalated. Mbulayi grabbed a knife and plunged it into Denhere’s chest. After the murder, Mbulayi with the assistance of one Munyaradzi Gwezuva carried the injured Denhere to Nketa Business Centre to arrange for an ambulance to ferry him to hospital, the court heard.

Denhere died before the ambulance arrived.