Slain musician Taliep Petersen described his marriage to Najwa as a ”nightmare” the Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town heard on Tuesday.
Taliep’s sister Tagmieda Johnson took the stand after the lunch break, at Najwa’s second bail application before Western Cape Regional Court president Robert Henney.
She was called by prosecutor Shireen Riley who was opposing the bail bid.
Najwa, together with three accomplices, is alleged to have shot dead her husband.
Johnson told the court Taliep has been a very private person and loathed discussing his problems with anyone other than herself.
She said they had come from a broken home which had resulted in a very close relationship with Taliep.
She told the court: ”He was extremely private and not the type of person to tell anyone of his problems. He would share his problems with me very confidentially, if unable to deal with them himself.”
Johnson said Taliep’s marriage to Najwa had been his second.
She told the court: ”Me and my husband could see cracks in the second marriage long before he told me about his problems.”
She said Taliep had phoned her in April last year to say he was extremely unhappy.
”He said his first marriage had been terrible but that the second to Najwa was a nightmare.
”He said his marriage to Najwa was like going from the frying pan into the fire,” she said.
She told the court of an incident in which Najwa had stabbed Taliep.
She said Taliep had the next day received calls from newspaper reporters, and he had told her that the last thing that he would ever do was talk to the media about his personal life.
After the stabbing, he told her that she, Najwa, had destroyed the last bit of passion he had for his wife.
After the stabbing, he did not pray with his wife anymore, did not have sex with her and said that he was scared that she would try something again.
Johnson told the court Taliep’s first four years of marriage to Najwa had been happy but that the last four had been terrible.
She told the court: ”When he told me about his marriage, I said life is too short and that his problems had gone on for four years and he had to do something about it.
”He said he was thinking about buying another house where he could stay without her but with his children from his previous marriage and present marriage.”
Earlier on Tuesday, police investigating officer Captain Joash Dryden warned the court that Najwa ”will be gone if she is released on bail”.
He was questioned at length by Petersen’s lawyer Herbert Raubenheimer, who wanted Dryden to concede that Petersen had an ”arguable case” to present to the court when she went on trial.
Petersen’s ”arguable case” is that she was asleep with her young daughter in a closed bedroom when her husband was shot dead in the lounge of their home.
Raubenheimer said Petersen had an ”exceptional illness”, a reference to her mental illness. He put it to Dryden that her illness justified her release on bail.
Asked if he agreed that someone with her illness needed 24 -hour care by qualified and trained people, he replied: ”I cannot comment”.
After hours of cross examination, Dryden told the court he stood by his earlier assertion that the state had a strong case against Petersen. – Sapa