Thandi Maqubela, on trial for the death of her husband, denied compiling a dossier on his love affairs.
|||Cape Town - Thandi Maqubela, on trial in connection with the death of her husband, Acting Judge Patrick Maqubela, has denied compiling a dossier on his extramarital affairs to show his friends and colleagues.
The widow and co-accused Vela Mabena are alleged to have suffocated the judge, using cling film, in his Bantry Bay flat on June 5, 2009.
Thandi Maqubela has also been charged with forgery and fraud, relating to her husband’s will.
Maqubela says her husband died of natural causes.
On Tuesday, Maqubela was cross-examined by prosecutor Bonnie Currie-Gamwo in the Western Cape High Court.
Currie-Gamwo put it to Maqubela that she sought revenge after she discovered her husband’s extramarital affairs, and that she went to her husband’s employer and the media to “expose him”.
She was questioned about a “dossier” compiled about the affairs.
Witnesses, including Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, have testified that Maqubela showed them a dossier with evidence – cellphone records, hotel bills and other documents – in connection with the relationships.
Maqubela said in response to Currie-Gamwo: “I didn’t compile a dossier about my husband’s relationships.”
Judge John Murphy described Radebe’s evidence as “quite specific”.
Maqubela said she had shown them only “training documents” regarding families, youth, men and women.
Asked by Currie-Gamwo if Radebe had lied to the court, Maqubela replied: “I don’t know whether I can say the honourable minister was lying, but that’s not what I showed him.”
Maqubela said she showed Radebe her husband’s sex booster tablets, and hotel bills.
Currie-Gamwo said this action was part of Maqubela’s plan “to exact revenge”.
The prosecutor said: “None of them have said you are doing it to help your husband but rather to expose him.”
Currie-Gamwo added that by going to his friends and colleagues about his behaviour, Maqubela seemed to be trying to destroy her husband’s career rather than trying to assist, as Maqubela had claimed, with his bipolar disorder.
Maqubela strongly denied this.
It later emerged that Maqubela had starting talking to friends and colleagues about the affairs before the acting judge was diagnosed as bi-polar, and that her visits to his friends and colleagues were not part of a care-giver’s treatment.
“It would appear you’ve been threatening to expose your husband from as far back as 2007,” Currie-Gamwo said.
Maqubela said that she, her husband, and a doctor who had treated her husband for his bipolar condition, but who had since died, were the only ones who knew the acting judge was bipolar.
Currie-Gamwo questioned Maqubela about “threatening” messages sent from her phone. Among them was a message sent to the acting judge, warning him about “leading a double life” and saying “there’s a time to hide and time to expose”. There was also an SMS regarding a woman who went to the police station, and a message in which Thandi Maqubela threatened to “send the tape”.
When questioned on Tuesday, Maqubela could not give an explanation for the SMSes.
The trial continues today.
natasha.prince@inl.co.za
Cape Argus