The Rep

Principal granted R1,000 bail

Wife chased, shot five times

- ABONGILE SOLUNDWANA

Lonwabo Primary School principal Melikhaya Tywabi, who allegedly shot his wife five times after chasing her in his car and trying to knock her vehicle off a bridge in Machibini’s Mtebele village on Saturday, received R1,000 bail in the Ezibeleni magistrate’s court on Thursday.

Nurses and family at Frontier Hospital also allegedly overheard the couple’s youngest son telling his father he would help him finish the mother off.

Police spokespers­on Namhla Mdleleni said Tywabi, 53, had been charged with attempted murder.

He was taken into police custody on Sunday.

The incident occurred a day after the 16 Days of Activism campaign against women and children was launched on Friday.

On Thursday, Enoch Mgijima Local Municipali­ty special programmes unit (SPU) women council deputy chair Bulelwa Mgijima was joined by women who picketed outside the Ezibeleni court demanding that Tywabi be denied bail.

Mgijima, who leads the gender-based and femicide SPU programme and is also a national delegate in the fight against the scourge, said: “We handed over a memorandum of demands to the Ezibeleni magistrate today.

“We said we do not want bail for the principal, we see that he has two lawyers but he will not make the cut during these 16 Days of Activism.”

After the court proceeding­s, Mgijima said they were disappoint­ed with the decision to grant Tywabi bail, stating they would take the matter up with social developmen­t

MEC Bukiwe Fanta.

At this stage it is still unclear what might have led to the attack.

Education spokespers­on Malibongwe Mtima said the department condemned the alleged attack.

He said the department would have to wait for the court process to be completed before it could take action.

Mtima said: “We are observing the process of the court, at the right time our processes will kick in.

“But for now we are observing the court proceeding­s ...”

A relative of the victim, who said the family feared for their lives, said she had received a call from the wife at about 8pm.

“She contacted me over the phone and told me her husband had shot her and she did not know where [he] was taking her.

“After that the call was terminated.”

The husband then reportedly took his wife to hospital. “While we were at the hospital, he took away her bloody clothes and said we were not going to have them. It was a big fight in the hospital,” the relative said.

“At the hospital she told us her husband chased her with his Range Rover bakkie and knocked her VW Tiguan but it did not topple over next to the bridge.

“He then got out of his car and began to shoot her. She showed us the bullet shots in her stomach and her thigh.

“We could not sleep on Saturday, we were traumatise­d.

“The youngest son [allegedly] said to his mother, ‘Are you still alive, have you not died, I will come and assist my father to finish you off’.”

The family member said the hospital nurses had advised them to apply for a protection order against the son but the police had told them it would not be possible because he had not been charged with a crime.

The relative also said the couple were not on good terms and were living separately, but were not divorced.

The wife lived in Mtebele, while the husband lived in Ilinge.

“Nothing can justify the shooting, even if someone did something wrong. The strange thing is he took her off the medical aid last month, only to later do this to her.

“We do not want him to be released on bail, he is a danger to the family, the children he is living with and the ones he teaches at school.”

The relative said the [alleged] abuse had been happening for years and it was not the first time that Tywabi had [allegedly] pointed a gun at his wife.

The wife’s father had confronted him in the past due to the [alleged] abuse.

After the court proceeding­s, Mgijima said they were disappoint­ed with the decision to grant Tywabi bail, stating they would take the matter up with social developmen­t MEC Bukiwe Fanta.

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