A man suspected of murdering his wife and then trying to disguise the crime as a hijacking has confessed to the murder, police in Durban said on Friday.
Police spokesperson Inspector Michael Read said the man has admitted to the murder. Read would, however, not provide any further details, except to say that the man is expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The 37-year-old husband was arrested by police at Durban’s St Augustine’s hospital on Thursday morning.
On Wednesday night, the man was fished out of Durban harbour near the landmark sugar terminals after he drove his bakkie through a security boom.
He had initially claimed that he and his wife had been hijacked by two men brandishing knives. Read said at the time the man had claimed that one of the hijackers went into the water with the car.
The other who was in the back of the bakkie was supposed to have jumped out moments before it went into the water.
The wife’s body was retrieved by police divers, but the body of the supposed hijacker could not be found. The 31-year-old wife had been stabbed 12 times in the chest and the arms.
Initially police opened a case of hijacking, but this was later changed to murder. The man has been moved from Maydon Wharf police station to Durban’s central police station. — Sapa