Pastor’s wife did not die from accident
Pastor Themba Masimula’s wife’s charred body was found on October 8, 2016 near Nkhaba in the motor vehicle in which the two were travelling from a nifgt church service.
MBABANE – The High Court has found that Pastor and former school teacher Themba Masimula’s wife Funekile Mdluli did not die from an accident.
Mdluli died in what Masimula, who said his wife was his pillar of support, claimed was a traffic accident.
His wife’s charred body was found on October 8, 2016 near Nkhaba in the motor vehicle in which he and Mdluli were travelling from a night church service in Ezulwini to the latter’s residence in Pigg’s Peak. Masimula said he bought a copy of the newspaper and five litres of petrol at Engen Filling Station in Mbabane for his motor vehicle that was parked at his homestead at Nkhaba.
Petrol
However, he did not leave the petrol at Nkhaba when they proceeded to Pigg’s Peak on the same morning.
He told the court that he slept in the passenger seat while his wife drove since he was tired.
He also said his wife lost control of the car and it caught fire, and he was thrown out of the vehicle.
In his judgment, Judge Ticheme Dlamini said Mdluli, beyond reasonable doubt, did not die from the purported accident. Judge Dlamini said Mdluli died from a stab wound and deep cut injury to her neck as per the post-mortem examination findings and evidence of a pathologist.
The judge also mentioned that the cause of the fire was open flame and was deliberately ignited as per the findings of a forensic fire investigation expert.
The expert, Warrant Officer
Rungani, examined the burnt vehicle to determine the origin and cause of the fire. His evidence was that they found a knife underneath the debris during an excavation that they carried out while investigating.
According to the evidence, this was the second knife as another one was found while the vehicle was at the scene of the incident.
The warrant officer testified that the conclusion they arrived at was that the fire originated in the passenger compartment.
He said legitimate fire causes classified as natural and accidental were excluded.
Based on analysis of the data of the investigation they carried out, the ignition source, he testified, could only be the application of an open flame.
Judge Dlamini pointed out that the evidence of the warrant officer concerning the origin of the fire was consistent with the evidence of the first person to arrive at the scene, Sabelo Msibi.
Started
Msibi testified that the driver’s door was wide open and the fire looked like it started from the seat inside the motor vehicle.
“I accept, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Funekile did not die from the alleged ‘accident’ as alleged by the accused person.
“She died from a stab wound and deep cut injury to her neck as per the post-mortem examination findings and evidence of the pathologists.
“The cause of the fire was open flame and was deliberately ignited as per the findings of the forensic fire investigator expert,” said the judge.
Explaining how the fire started, Masimula told the court that it did not start like a small fire but was just a boom of a huge blaze of fire.
According to the court, a sudden boom of a huge blaze of fire, which Masimula described, would be caused by open flame when exposed to flammable liquid or substance.
Intended
“The five litres of petrol, which the accused purchased at Engen Filling Station in Mbabane, was not removed from the vehicle upon arrival at the place where he said he intended to use it,” the court stated.
Masimula told the court that he sustained burn wounds on the face, legs and hands.
When asked which part of the hands was burnt, his response was that it was the outer part on both hands.
He was also asked what exactly he was doing when he sustained the burn wounds only on the back part of the hands and he said he did not know, ‘but what I know is that when the fire started I was thrown out of the car, and when I regained consciousness I realised that I had been burnt on those parts of the body I mentioned in my evidence’.
Judge Dlamini said: “The evidence of the accused that he was
“I accept, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Funekile did not die from the alleged ‘accident’ as alleged by the accused person.”
burnt while attempting to pull his wife out of the car by pulling her hand, and that the fire started underneath the steering wheel and the dashboard, do not correlate.”
The evidence he gave was that he was kneeling with his left knee on the driver’s seat while his right leg was dangling between the steering wheel and the driver’s seat.
His body, he submitted, was leaning towards the passenger area where his wife was and he was trying to pull her to get out of the car.
“It logically cannot reasonably be true that a person can be burnt on the face and outer parts of both hands by fire that starts on the driver’s seat area while that person is leaning towards the passenger’s seat area.
“The manner that the accused said he was thrown out of the car by a huge flame of fire that erupted is not consistent with the origin of the fire that he pointed out.
“Any force of fire coming from the fire origin place that the accused pointed out would logically be from the right hip side and blow towards the left hip side of the accused.
“It cannot throw him out of the car through the open driver’s door which is at his back side,” the judge further said.
The convict’s close friend, Pastor Biyela Muzi Khanyile, testified that Masimula informed him that he sustained the burn wounds on the hands and face when he opened the bonnet of the vehicle at the scene.
reAsoN
Judge Dlamini said in his opinion, Pastor Khanyile had no reason to tell a lie about what the accused said to him.
According to the court, if there was anything he would be expected to do was to protect his friend than to tell a lie about him.
The court stated that the evidence which Pastor Khanyile tendered, concerning how Masimula said he sustained the burn wounds on both hands, fortified the conclusion that he was concealing the truth about the cause of death of his wife and the cause of the fire that extensively burnt the motor vehicle and her body.
Masimula will be sentenced in due course. He is represented by Noncedo Ndlangamandla while Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Lomvula Hlophe represents the Crown.