Girl, 9, tells court prison warder attacked wife with bush knife
The girl assured the court that no-one had coached her before she gave her evidence
A nine-year-old girl told the East London high court on Friday she witnessed a former prison warder attack his estranged wife with a bush knife in his room in the staff accommodation block at the city’s Westbank Correctional Facility.
Simphiwe Mxosa, 48, stands accused of the murder of his wife Bulelwa in March. He has pleaded not guilty.
The couple had separated before the incident. The child told the court that on the day Bulelwa was killed she had accompanied her to her estranged husband’s quarters so she could retrieve clothes left behind when she first moved out.
The girl, whose identity is being withheld because she is a minor, gave her evidence, led by prosecutor Andile Nohiya with the assistance of intermediary Liziwe Tende, via a TV monitor.
Mxosa kept his eyes fixed on the image of the girl as she narrated her version of events while her relatives sat in the court gallery.
“He asked if she was leaving him forever and if he would ever see her again,” the child testified.
She said Bulelwa had answered that he would never see her again.
The girl said Mxosa then took a bush knife from under the bed. Bulelwa was facing in the other direction while she unpacked a cupboard.
“He hit her with the bush knife,” the child testified.
“She fell down. When he was about to stab her in the stomach I ran out of the room.
“I ran down the passage and met [a woman] who took me to where [Mxosa] worked. I left the door open.
“When he struck her she cried and screamed a lot. It was a big bush knife. I cried too,” the child said under cross-examination by Mxosa’s attorney, Hendrik Erasmus.
The girl assured the court that no-one had coached her before she gave her evidence.
She said Mxosa would be lying if he denied killing Bulelwa.
“I’m not mistaken. It’s him who killed her. I had seen the bush knife before under his bed.”
The child said in a previous incident her arm had been broken during an altercation between Mxosa and Bulelwa.
“Because he was chasing her away and there was a stage where he fractured my arm.
“He kept threatening to kill her.
“I was in front of her [Bulelwa] and he had a knobkerrie.
“He wanted to hit her. When I tried to grab the knobkerrie he hit me on the arm,” the girl said.
Another witness, Sergeant Zukile Mthanda, a former friend of Mxosa, said the accused had tried to snatch his firearm earlier in the day when he gave him a lift.
He said Mxosa then told him he had been joking.
Mthanda said Mxosa had told him about his marital problems when he was under the influence of alcohol and he had advised him to walk away from the relationship.
The trial is due to continue on January 9 and is expected to run for five days.