Murder-accused Thandi Maqubela boarded an aircraft to Johannesburg after being told that her husband had been hospitalised.
|||Cape Town - Thandi Maqubela, accused of killing her husband, Acting Judge Patrick Maqubela, boarded an aircraft to Johannesburg after being told that he had been hospitalised in Cape Town and she had not heard from him for hours.
On Wednesday, the Western Cape High Court heard how cellphone relays from different base stations were used to determine the widow’s movements on the day her husband died.
Maqubela and co-accused Vela Mabena are on trial for the murder of the acting judge, whose body was found in his Bantry Bay flat on June 7, 2009. The State believes he died on Friday, June 5.
Maqubela on Wednesday changed her story regarding her movements on the Friday her husband died.
She told the court she had gone straight to the airport from Bellville, which the State said was backed by the cellphone evidence.
Maqubela had also received a call earlier that Friday morning from a court registrar to say her husband had not arrived for work and who, according to Maqubela, “mentioned something about Groote Schuur”.
Cellphone triggers also show that she had taken five minutes to drive from the city to Newlands. Maqubela maintained that during that time she had stopped at Groote Schuur to check if her husband was at the hospital.
It later emerged that she had booked a flight earlier in the day - anticipating that her husband would not pitch up for their planned trip to the Eastern Cape.
She said she did attempt to contact him but he did not respond. She said he had six cellphones.
”On that day, it would appear that your husband’s phone seemed to be travelling with your phone. Can you provide an explanation?” asked prosecutor Bonnie Currie-Gamwo.
“I don’t have an idea,” she replied. She denied having her husband’s phone.
natasha.prince@inl.co.za
Cape Argus