Jealousy triggered fatal attack on wife

A KWADUKUZA man who stabbed his wife to death in the back of a minibus taxi last year says jealousy drove him to it.

Sugen Naicker’s advocate, TP Pillay, yesterday told the Durban High Court his client suspected his wife, Lorraine Munsamy, and the taxi driver, Rakesh Nookhai, were having an affair.

But Nookhai, who was on the stand at the time, simply laughed and said this was not the case.

Naicker is on trial for one count of murder and two of assault.

As per his indictment, he and Munsamy had a “fractious relationship”, and at the time of her death they were estranged.

The day before she was killed, Munsamy laid assault charges against Naicker.

This after he allegedly “grabbed” her while she was dropping their children off at school and then tried to follow her home.

“(Naicker) decided to kill (Munsamy),” the indictment reads. “He contacted the taxi driver who usually drove (Munsamy) to work and arranged to be fetched the following morning at the same time (she) would be.”

Before boarding the taxi the next day, Naicker allegedly armed himself with a knife.

According to his indictment, he seated himself behind his wife in the taxi and waited until they were the only two passengers left.

“He then grabbed hold of her from behind and stabbed her repeatedly in her chest and body… He then stabbed himself in an apparent bid to commit suicide.”

Yesterday, Nookhai told the court that on the day Munsamy was killed – while he was sitting in the driver’s seat – he heard Naicker say, “I love you, I love you”.

He looked into his rearview mirror and he saw Naicker with his hands around Munsamy’s neck. Then he saw him stab her repeatedly.

“Was he saying that he loved her while he was stabbing her?” Pillay asked him.

Nookhai replied that he was.

He said he pulled the taxi over straight away and that he and his conductor wrestled Naicker out.

He confirmed that Naicker tried to stab himself afterwards.

Pillay said his client asserted that he was begging Munsamy to take him back, when she told him she had someone new in her life.

“That was when he pulled out the knife,” he said. “He was triggered by what she said.”

Pillay asked Nookhai if Naicker seemed upset that day, but he could not say.

He said he was “just a taxi driver” and that while he sometimes listened to his passengers’ problems, it was not his job to probe deeper.

The trial continues.