Acting judge Patrick Maqubela was diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder, a part of which was sex addiction, his widow testified.
|||Cape Town - Acting judge Patrick Maqubela was diagnosed with bipolar mood disorder, a part of which was sex addiction, his widow Thandi Maqubela told the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
She accompanied her husband to a consultation with a physician, who diagnosed the judge as having the disorder, which explained his two extra marital affairs, she testified.
The State alleges that Maqubela and her co-accused Vela Mabena
suffocated the judge with cling-wrap in his Sea Point, Cape Town, apartment on June 5, 2009. They have pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder.
Maqubela has also pleaded not guilty to additional charges of forgery and fraud.
Prosecutors Bonnie Currie-Gamwo and Pedro van Wyk allege that she forged her husband's signature on his will, and then fraudulently presented the forged will at the Johannesburg office of the Master of the High Court.
Under cross-examination by Currie-Gamwo, Maqubela said she discussed her husband's condition with former Eastern Cape judge president Cecil “Doc” Somyalo.
Asked why she had disclosed this information to the former judge president, Maqubela replied that her husband had moved in and out of several top paying posts, including one with SA Airways and another with a Johannesburg legal firm.
He had stopped reporting for duty at the firm, and when she discussed his lack of interest with the senior partner, she was told he had regularly been seen with young women.
When an acting post was offered to him at the Western Cape High Court, she said she realised how important the job was and that her husband could even secure the position permanently if he worked diligently.
This spurred her conversation with Somyalo, as Somyalo knew her husband, and she had hoped he would be able to speak to him to impress upon him that he should desist from his behaviour.
“The post of acting judge was the best job that he had had, and for me it was important that he should do it well, and not just stop going to work as he had done with other jobs,” Maqubela told the court.
“I wanted him to stop seeing other women, and to stop the reckless spending of money.”
Maqubela said she had discussed her husband's behaviour with his family hoping the embarrassment would stop him from continuing with his behaviour.
Asked if she disclosed to the judge's family that he had been diagnosed as bipolar, Maqubela said she had discussed only his affairs.
As far as she was concerned, it was up to her husband to explain his condition to his family.
The trial continues on Wednesday. - Sapa