An auditor and director at Price Waterhouse Coopers Tonderai Luwisi has told the Lusaka High Court that he stabbed his wife to death during a brutal fight after she told him that he did not father their two children.
Luwisi said he felt betrayed and heartbroken to hear that the children he had broken his back for to ensure they never lacked in their 18-years of existence were not his.
The 45-year-old who is a Zimbabwean national is accused of murdering his wife Pellegia Muligwi aged 38 on December 10, 2022 around 18:00 hours in a bitter fight after she learned of his infidelity.
Opening his defense before High Court judge Bonaventure Mbewe Luwisi narrated that prior to his wife’s death, the deceased informed him that she would be travelling to Zimbabwe for work and she requested that he changes ownership of his Toyota vanguard in her name which she would use to travel.
He said they exchanged their cars and obtained the requisite documentation needed for the car to be allowed on Zimbabwean soil.
Luwisi said the pair had been on separation since October 6, 2022 due to repetitive marital conflicts which forced her to leave their matrimonial home in Foxdale and rent an apartment in Jesmondine with their children.
He said though they were on separation both parties would fulfil their marital duties and maintained their marital status as husband and wife.
“I used to eat dinner in Jesmondine, I used to take my wife to dinner every Friday. I used to sleep at her house at some weekends and my wife would also come at our Foxdale flat on Saturday’s and we would spend the mornings together,” Luwisi said whilst recounting the last moments he spent with his wife.
He said on the fateful day, Muligwi informed him that their tenant in Zimbabwe who is the son of President Emerson Munangagwa requested that they install some fittings at their property.
“Based on the message, I decided to drive to her place and she asked me to buy some food but I thought to buy drinks, so I decided to send our son since there was a mini supermarket where we used to buy groceries,”Luwisi said.
He said after sometime he noticed that his wife was grumpy and he assumed that the reason she was moody was that he did not subscribe for DSTV because she was traveling.
“I went to the kitchen wanting to chat with my wife,I found her by the fridge packing meat in plastic bags. She was angry, aggressive and confrontational and asked me to leave. Earlier,I had received a message from a strange number which was asking the father of the child to bring milk. I clarified that issue with my wife and I thought it was closed,”Luwisi said.
“My wife went to the other side of the kitchen and started insulting me. My wife told me I was not husband material, that I was rubbish and our marriage was over. She then told me she was not worth US$5,200 which was a final lobola I had paid to my in-laws in June 2022 to honour my wife. She said she was worth more and could easily refund me the lobola.”
Luwisi claimed that his wife belittled him when she told him he was not man enough, their marriage was not exciting and that she was in love with someone else who was better than him and regretted wasting 18 years in marriage with him.
“My wife told me that the two children are not mine, I wasn’t their father, I can’t give birth to such beautiful children, I was nothing, I was useless and she is taking the children away from me. I was shocked and confused with what my wife was telling me. I never expected such from her. The deception, the betrayal and the insensitiveness,” Luwisi said amid sobs.
“At that moment,my wife took away the pride in me as a father, husband and family man. I felt deceived,betrayed and belittled by my wife of almost 18 years. I was very angry,I was furious,I was heartbroken. Then I asked my wife,why now? Who is the father of the children and where is he? We had a scuffle as my wife pushed me and then she picked a knife from kitchen counter and told me a son of a bitch shall be killed.”
He claimed that he lost his cool and the pair was at cross swords to which Muligwi stabbed him in the neck, chest and thigh and he stabbed her back but he does not know which part of the body they knife pierced.
“I blacked out and the next thing I remember was seeing my wife on the floor and my daughter holding the knife. I retrieved the knife she had, seeing my wife on the floor I panicked I was in fear I was in shock and tears,” Luwisi claimed.
“I was bleeding from the neck and from my chest, I was in panic, fear and traumatized with what had just happened. I called my son but he was still at the shops. The thought of me and my wife dying made me write a message to my children telling them about the things I had left them and that my son should take care of his sister upon my death.”
He said he drove to PWC offices to get help for himself and his wife because people would easily identify him there.
“I blacked out and the next thing I remember is getting out of the car walked out of the basement I didn’t know where I was and going I was just walking I wasn’t myself anymore. I collapsed in the middle of the road and woke up at UTH surrounded by medical personnel,”said Luwisi.
During cross examination by State prosecutor Victor Chongo, the accused rebutted his daughter’s testimony that she found him strangling his wife in the kitchen and later stabbed her in the neck.
Asked why he did not walk away when he was angered Luwisi said although such an opportunity presented itself he didn’t see it prudent to walk away when the argument got heated, because he couldn’t control himself.
“I didn’t bother to inquire if the children were really mine because I believed my wife,” said Luwisi.
Judge Mbewe adjourned the matter to August 23, 2023 for judgement.
-Kalemba
