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'All I could see was blood'
05/05/2008 14:43 - (SA)
Cape Town - One of entertainer Taliep Petersen's daughters has told the Cape High Court she found her father covered in blood after he was stabbed by his wife Najwa.
Jawaahier Petersen, Taliep's child from an earlier marriage, was testifying on Monday about an alleged incident, prior to Taliep's death, in the trial of Najwa and three men the widow allegedly hired to kill Taliep in December 2006.
Jawaahier told the court that on the night of April 13 that year she was on Mxit in her room at the family's Athlone home when her youngest sister Fatima came in, saying Taliep was calling her and that "it doesn't sound right".
She went to the bedroom that Taliep and Najwa shared, and listened at the door.
"I just heard, 'Najwa, no, Najwa, no'," she said.
When she opened the door the lights were off.
By the blue light of one of the two television sets in the room she could see that the bed's blankets were on the floor, but she could not see Taliep or Najwa.
'Looked like a zombie'
She asked Taliep where he was, and he told her to put on the light but not to "freak out".
When she switched on the light, all she could see was blood, on the sheets, the blankets and even on the window blinds.
Najwa was kneeling on the floor, holding a knife like a bread knife pointed back over one shoulder at Taliep, who was standing behind her and gripping her knife hand.
"They were both covered in blood," Jawaahier said.
Najwa's eyes were droopy and "somewhat demonic", as if she had taken her psychiatric medication.
"She looked like a zombie... it wasn't her," Jawaahier said. Najwa was also making a throaty sound, as if possessed.
Taliep took the knife from Najwa, gave it to the family's live-in domestic worker, who had also come into the bedroom, and told her to wash it.
Jawaahier said though she could not see where Taliep was injured, he was holding six or seven dishcloths to his neck, and they became soaked with blood within seconds. His face was pale.
She phoned for an ambulance, and Taliep and Najwa were taken to the nearby Gatesville medical centre.
Though Taliep was discharged the next day, Najwa was transferred to a psychiatric clinic, where she stayed for three weeks.
Jawaahier said she did not think of calling the police, as her first concern at the time had been for her father.
She said Taliep did not want to "make a big deal" out of the incident.
He had been concerned about his image as a public figure, and also wanted to protect Najwa from public knowledge about her illness.
After Najwa's discharge, Jawaahier moved out of the Petersen home to stay with her mother.
"I would never have been able to live and feel comfortable after that... comfortable with Najwa in the house," she said.
After the stabbing she did not like having Najwa even walking or praying behind her, and when making coffee would stand sideways to Najwa to keep her in her peripheral vision.
Though her two younger sisters continued to spend nights at the Petersen home, as laid down in their parents' divorce custody agreement, they would lock their bedroom doors at night.
Najwa 'right as rain'
Jawaahier said though she was aware Najwa had periodic seizures, she had witnessed only one, a few days before the stabbing.
She said Najwa's demeanour in the bloody bedroom had been a "total change" from what she was like some 30 minutes earlier, when Jawaahier had gone into the bedroom and spoken to her about Taliep's coming birthday.
Then she had been "right as rain", with no sign that she was on medication.
Earlier Taliep's sister Tagmieda Johnson told the court that Taliep told her before his death that he wanted to divorce Najwa.
He had said that his first marriage was awful, but that his marriage to Najwa was "ten times worse".
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