Witness says Maqubela was ‘disabled’ by murder trial
THANDI Maqubela, convicted of her husband’s murder, lifted her sunglasses and wiped tears from her eyes as she listened to her former employee describing how the murder trial had “disabled” the widow.
Judge Patrick Maqubela was found dead in a Bantry Bay flat in June 2009.
Maqubela went through a lengthy trial in the Western Cape High Court before her conviction in November 2013, in spite of the fact the court could find no conclusive medical evidence indicating a cause of death. She was also convicted of fraud relating to her husband’s will.
She has since been sent for psychiatric evaluation and deemed fit to understand trial proceedings.
Yesterday she emerged from the Western Cape High Court holding cells in a smart black suit, and sunglasses amid a flurry of camera flashes.
She had spent 60 days in Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital under the observation of four psychiatrists.
Advocate Thomas Tyler, for Maqubela, told the court that he had received no instructions that his client was not competent to understand proceedings and Judge John Murphy ruled that she was “competent to understand proceedings”.
In the witness box across from Maqubela, Beatrice Khakhaza wept, briefly pausing court proceedings when she was asked of the spiritual and psychological impact of the trial on Maqubela. With assistance from an interpreter, she replied : “It has disabled her, she is not herself. That is why I’m upset.” She added Maqubela was struggling to accept being without her children.
Khakhaza was one of three witnesses called by the defence yesterday.
An old nursing college friend, Thuli Mzamane from Pretoria, said she had known Maqubela since the 1980s. She described Maqubela’s successful business endeavours – having started up several hair salons around the city and establishing enterprises such as South African Nurses in Business, SA Women in Health organisation and how she championed causes against the HIV/Aids epidemic.
She said Maqubela also endeavoured to set up homes for the elderly who were being “mistreated”.
Maqubela had personally helped Mzamane when she fell ill and was described as a Jehovah’s Witness.
Nokwanda Gonyela, the domestic worker and nanny to the Maqubela family, was also called to the stand.
Gonyela was unable to say when she started working for the Maqubelas, but said president Nelson Mandela was still in power.
She was treated as a member of the family. Thandi Maqubela promised to build her a two-bedroom house and after Patrick Maqubela died said the house would still be built.
Tyler asked her about the relationship between the Maqubelas, to which she replied: “I never saw anything. I never saw them arguing or fighting – they were always very loving.”
The matter was postponed to tomorrow.