Mathew Masinge
A MAN has been jailed 14 years for killing his wife after she refused to prepare sadza for him after a power outage had ended some time in 2021.
Clayton Mabasa Hunda had a misunderstanding with his wife soon after power was restored and she refused to cook for him because she was allegedly talking to her boyfriends.
The couple had downed a 750ml bottle of gin.
Hunda assaulted his wife in anger, sat on her chest and pulled out her braids.
She later passed out from the resultant injuries and died.
Hunda, who contested the trial, defended himself saying he only lost self-control in a moment of madness.
He said he was provoked in his intoxicated state.
In convicting Hunda, High Court judge, Justice Lucy Mungwari, found that the murder wasn’t committed in aggravating circumstances.
“An examination of the circumstances in which this murder occurred reveals that indeed it cannot be denied that the offender may have been provoked, although that provocation was insufficient to reach the threshold necessary to accord the offender the partial defence of provocation which would have reduced the crime to culpable homicide.
“The court is still obliged to consider it as lessening his moral blameworthiness.
“The provocation related to the possibility of infidelity on the part of the deceased when she boasted that she was talking to her boyfriends,” ruled Justice Mungwari.
He said Hunda acted out of his character and qualifies for a rehabilitative sentence.
“It therefore also amounts to the fact of the offender having acted out of passion.
“It was a finding of this court that the offender took offence at his wife’s response to his request to cook supper.
“A wholesome consideration of these issues lead us to the inescapable conclusion that it is in the interests of justice that the offender be sentenced as follows: 14 years’ imprisonment.”
The court heard that when Hunda discovered that his wife had died from the assault, he tried to render first aid to her by pouring water on her to no avail.