Judge's wife held for his murder
2010-03-26 08:37
Maygene de Wee, Die Burger
Cape Town - The widow of acting Judge Patrick Ntobeko Maqubela, 61, was arrested in connection with his murder at her house in Sandton, Johannesburg, at about 02:00 on Thursday.
Police spokesperson André Traut confirmed that Thandi Maqubela, 55, who is currently in detention, will appear in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Monday on a murder charge.
Two of the Western Cape's top detectives, Jo-ash Dryden and Reynold Talmakkies, arrested her at her home after months of investigation.
They flew to Cape Town with her on Thursday.
Talmakkies has been in Johannesburg since last week doing investigation work.
Dryden is one of the detectives who investigated the murder of music legend Taliep Petersen, and Talmakkies was the investigating officer in the Sizzlers murder case in 2003.
Blood-smeared pillow
Maqubela's body was discovered on Sunday June 7 last year in his luxury apartment in Sea Point.
He was covered with a blanket and a blood-smeared pillow lay halfway over his head.
Judge Jake Moloi and other colleagues went to look for him at his apartment on that day, because they hadn't been able to get hold of him over the weekend.
Moloi said at the time that he was convinced Maqubela didn't die of a heart attack as was initially announced.
On Thursday he said he's shocked by this new development. "I never even considered the possibility that his wife might be involved."
Moloi said that if the police had arrested her, he's sure they've done their job. "The law must now take its course."
On the Tuesday after Maqubela's body was found, the police announced that they were investigating a murder.
Marital problems
Colleagues of Maqubela said at the time there was talk of a divorce and that the judge and his wife were having marital problems.
Apparently Maqubela withdrew divorce papers shortly after the death of his mother-in-law.
A source close to the investigation said cellphone records show that Thandi was not in the Eastern Cape on Friday June 5 as she had claimed.
She alleged that she made a call from Cape Town International Airport, but cellphone records show that the call was made from somewhere outside the city bowl.
She only boarded a flight to Johannesburg at 20:00 that night.
The next day she took a flight from Johannesburg to East London. There she rented a car and drove to Maqubela's home town, Qumbu.
According to the source, she made several calls from Qumbu and sent SMS messages to several people, including the minister of justice.
The source said Judge Maqubela had a life insurance policy worth about R20m and that his estate was worth between R15m and R20m.