FAMILY SHOCKED AFTER MAN BLUDGEONS WIFE TO DEATH

MBABANE – Gender-based violence showed its ugly face when a man bludgeoned his wife to death with a log at Magagasi, near St Philip’s.

The family of the deceased said they were shocked by the incident that occurred on Monday, at around 9pm. Tholakele Sikhondze (38) was allegedly killed by her husband Socokile Vilakati. Information gathered is that the accused person hit the deceased with a hard object on the head. Her death rendered two of her children motherless. One was still breastfeeding, while the other is aged three. Xolile Magagula, the deceased’s aunt, alleged that the accused person came into one of the rooms of the house in which the family lived. The husband was in a suspicious state of sobriety.

Sikhondze then asked the accused person why he was always drunk. Magagula further alleged that the deceased asked Vilakati where he got the alcohol from.  Instead of responding, the accused is alleged to have assaulted the deceased with an elbow and she fell to the ground. “Other family members tried to stop the accused person from continuing assaulting his wife. He was taken to his house, where his wife tried to dress him up,” Magagula narrated. She said the accused dragged his wife before hitting her with a log on the left ear. Magagula suspected that the accused person had smoked dagga on the day he committed the offence. “When he wanted to cause chaos, he would drink alcohol, smoke dagga and then walk naked,” Magagula alleged. Information gathered from family members was that it was not the first time for the man to assault his wife. In one incident, he is alleged to have threatened her with a bush knife and also hit her with sticks. “He said he was fed up with his wife and, therefore, wanted to get rid of her. Simo sibi lakhaya,” she lamented.

Medication

Magagula further highlighted that the accused person was on medication, which calmed him, whenever he became violent. His now deceased wife would help him to take his medication.
The family member said after being informed that Vilakati was assaulting his wife, she ran to the crime scene and found her lying on the ground.  “I initially suspect that he had hit her with a hard object next to the ear. I then took her to Sithobela Health Centre, where she was certified dead,” she said. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the death of a 38-year-old woman, after she was hit with a hard object on the head by her husband. Vilakati further said the accused had been arrested for murder. On another note, two girls aged eight and 10 drowned while swimming at Novoye River at Phumlamcashi.

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