Man killed over forced marriage

2008-05-21 17:33

Pietermaritzburg - A Port Shepstone woman was jailed for 18 years on Wednesday for murdering her dead sister's husband in a desperate attempt to avoid being forced into marrying him.

Sentencing Soliwe Mzobe, 32, Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Kevin Swain said that people should not resolve their problems by violence.

He found that Matolweni Kunene, 59, had died a brutal, agonising death of head injuries the day after he was doused with petrol, set alight and axed.

He sentenced Mzobe to an additional five years in prison for arson and one year for theft, but ordered that the sentences run concurrently and stipulated that she serve two-thirds of the term before being eligible for parole.

Mzobe had pleaded guilty to the crimes, and in an explanation of her plea claimed her family had wanted her to marry Kunene to avoid the disgrace of having an unmarried woman in its midst.

Abuse

She ran away, but they found her and forced her to return to get engaged to him, she submitted, accusing her mother of threatening to have Kunene killed once they were married so his new bride could inherit his estate.

She alleged that, after they were engaged, Kunene started hitting her, accused her of having an affair and threatened to kill her family.

However, her family maintained she was making up reasons to end the relationship.

She told the court that the man Kunene had accused of being her lover, had helped her to murder him.

Swain asked what had become of this man, but neither the prosecution nor the defence could shed light on his whereabouts or whether he had been charged. The investigating officer was not at court.

- SAPA