Wife murders hubby over woollen hat

AN 18-YEAR-OLD woman from Mberengwa fatally stabbed her husband once in the chest during a fight over a woollen hat.

Nicolette Hove of Mapako Village, Chief Mataruse in Mberengwa appeared before Gweru regional magistrate, Mr Morgan Nemadire facing one count of murder, which was reduced to culpable homicide.

Hove pleaded guilty to the charge and Mr Nemadire handed her a five-year suspended sentence.

It was the State’s case that on November 15 last year at around midday at Mabhena homestead in Mapako Village, Hove, wife to the now deceased Tafadzwa Mabhena (29) was in a kitchen hut with a relative, Hilda Mzheri.

After some minutes, the court heard that Mabhena finished bathing and proceeded to the kitchen.

He grabbed a woollen hat his wife was wearing and a quarrel ensued.

Mabhena, the court heard, threatened to cut his wife into pieces with a knife if she refused to give him the woollen hat.

Hove rushed to grab a knife that was on the shelf before Mzheri begged her to drop it and let her husband have the woollen hat.

She conceded and returned to the bench where she was seated, while Mabhena was leaving the kitchen with the woollen hat.

Mabhena made a U-turn at the door and slapped Hove several times in the face without saying a word.

Hove stood up and picked up the knife before the couple went out of the kitchen hut still fighting.

Hove then stabbed Mabhena once on the chest and fled the scene with the knife in her hand.

Mabhena, the court heard, was ferried to Mnene District Hospital by relatives, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Mr Kelvin Guveya appeared for the State.