Woman kills ‘abusive’ hubby: Laces beer with pesticide
By Mashudu Netsianda
HWANGE – An Insuza woman was yesterday sentenced to an effective 25 years in jail for poisoning her “abusive” husband by lacing his beer with a potent garden pesticide.
Simangaliso Tshuma, 48, of Masai Village, who had pleaded not guilty to murder and offered a limited plea to culpable homicide, was convicted of a murder charge in connection with the death of her husband Misheck Sethi Nyathi, 52, in 2012.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Andrew Mutema, on circuit in Hwange, described Tshuma as an evil-minded woman who deserved to rot in jail for committing a heinous crime.
Tshuma, through her lawyer Tonderai Mukuku, argued that her husband was abusive and raised the issue of provocation and diminished responsibility.
“I got married to Nyathi in 1980 and since that time I have been living in hell. My husband was working in Bulawayo while I was staying in our rural home and he never bothered to take care of the family and whenever I asked him he would assault me calling me a slave,” said Tshuma.
She also accused Nyathi of deliberately infecting her with HIV.
“He would not buy me food or send money and I had to fend for the family on my own. He was diagnosed HIV positive in 2006, but did not disclose his status and when I tested in 2012 I also tested HIV positive. When I confronted him he assaulted me,” said Tshuma in her defence.
She admitted to poisoning her husband by lacing his mug of beer with a pesticide, but denied that she intended to kill him.
Prosecuting, Namatirai Ngwasha said on March 25, 2012 shortly after 7PM, Nyathi bought a bottle of opaque beer at Matwasa Bottle Store in Insuza. He went home and drank the beer together with his wife, but they did not finish it as they retired to bed.
The court heard that on the following morning, Tshuma woke up and laced the beer with the garden pesticide in the absence of her husband.
“Nyathi later returned and requested for the beer which they had left the previous night. Nyathi gave her husband the beer and he drank it,” said Ngwasha.
The court heard that soon after drinking the beer, Nyathi started complaining of stomach problems before developing a runny stomach.
He also started vomiting.
Nyathi’s brother, Thomas informed his cousin, Nhlamfayo Mpofu who is also a member of the neighbourhood watch committee, about the illness.
Mpofu and Thomas became suspicious and they then decided to go to the bottle store where the beer was bought carrying the empty container.
It was then discovered that the container had a pungent smell.
On being questioned, Tshuma denied any knowledge of the poisoning.
The matter was reported to the police and investigations led to Tshuma’s arrest.
According to the postmortem results, the cause of the death was organophosphate poisoning. The Chronicle
