Murder-accused widow Thandi Maqubela was questioned about her movements and cellphone calls the day her husband died.
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Cape Town - Murder-accused widow Thandi Maqubela was questioned on Tuesday about her movements and cellphone calls the day her husband, acting judge Patrick Maqubela, died in 2009.
She has been charged in the Western Cape High Court with his murder, and has pleaded not guilty. She has also denied guilt on fraud and forgery charges pertaining to her husband's signature on his will, and its presentation to the Master of the High Court's Johannesburg office.
With her in the dock is her business associate Vela Mabena, who has also pleaded not guilty to the murder.
Prosecutor Bonnie Currie-Gamwo said cellphone-mapping records show Maqubela was in her husband's Bantry Bay apartment for four hours on the afternoon of the murder.
“If the records say so, then I was (there),” Maqubela said.
Currie-Gamwo said this meant Maqubela was not at the airport that afternoon, waiting to meet her husband.
However, Maqubela insisted she did go to the airport that afternoon. She said she and her husband had arranged to meet at Cape Town International Airport, and were to board a flight to the Eastern Cape together. When her husband “did not pitch”, she booked a flight to Johannesburg instead, to be with her children.
“I did go to the airport to meet my husband that afternoon. I am definitely sure about that,” Maqubela said.
Asked if she was concerned about her husband's failure to meet her at the airport, she said she was accustomed to him changing his mind willy-nilly.
Knowing the “type of man” he was - a reference to his alleged womanising - she said she was not concerned, and that if he had arrived at the airport after she had left, he could have phoned her.
“I had known my husband for 13 years, and knew that he is apt to change his mind at any time about anything,” Maqubela said.
Currie-Gamwo said: “I put it to you that you had no intention of going to the Eastern Cape with your husband that afternoon.”
Maqubela replied: “As far as I know, we were going to our home in Qumbu.”
Currie-Gamwo persisted: “You knew that your husband was not going to be at the airport that afternoon.”
Maqubela replied: “I don't know about that.”
The trial continues. - Sapa