A Libode businessman was fined R15 000, with the option of five years imprisonment, on Wednesday for beating his domestic worker to death with a stick.
In July 1995, Noluthando Mbovane left her employer’s gas stove on by mistake and paid for the blunder with her life.
When businessman Theophelus Monde Mdudi (57) heard about Mboveni’s oversight, he assaulted her repeatedly with a stick.
She died soon afterwards. According to medical reports, Mbovane bled to death.
Mdudi, with the help of Mongezi Tyeni, then loaded Mbovane’s body into a vehicle and dumped it on the banks of Tina River near Qumbu.
Tyeni later turned state witness.
Mdudi pleaded guilty to murder while his wife, Thamie Olivia Mdudi, who helped her husband dispose of the body, pleaded not guilty.
High Court Judge Mandisa Maya ordered a separate trial for Mdudi’s wife.
Another judge will try the wife.
Mdudi was fined R15 000 or five years imprisonment, plus an additional four years imprisonment conditionally suspended for five years.
Judge Maya made provisions for Mdudi’s fine to be paid in instalments although the last instalment is to be paid before the year’s end. – Sapa