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Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
Mberengwa villages were left stunned as an 18-year-old woman fatally stabbed her 29-year-old husband once in the chest during a fight over a woollen hat.

Nicolette Hove of Mapako Village under Chief Mataruse in Mberengwa, appeared before Gweru regional magistrate Mr Morgan Nemadire facing one count of murder, which was reduced to culpable homicide.

Hove pleaded guilty to the charge and heaved a sigh of relief after Mr Nemadire handed her a five-year suspended sentence, on condition she does not commit a similar offence in the next five years.

It was the State’s case that on November 15, last year at around 12 midday at Mabhena homestead in Mapako Village, Hove, the wife to the now deceased Tafadzwa Mabhena, was seated on a bench inside a kitchen hut in the company of a relative, Hilda Mzheri, while Mabhena was bathing in the toilet.

After some minutes, the court heard that Mabhena finished bathing, went to his bedroom to get dressed and proceeded to the kitchen.

He went to the place where Hove was sitting and took a woollen hat she was wearing without asking her for it.

This did not go down with Hove, who snatched the hat back from him before the couple started quarrelling which led to a fight.

Mabhena, the court heard, threatened to cut his wife into pieces with a knife if she refused to give him the hat.

Hove rushed to grab a knife that was on the shelf before Mzheri begged her to drop it and let her husband have the hat.

She conceded and returned to the bench where she was seated, while Mabhena was leaving the kitchen with the hat.

Mabhena turned while at the door and slapped Hove several times in the face without saying a word. Hove stood up and picked up the knife before the couple went out of the kitchen hut still fighting.

Hove then stabbed Mabhena once in the chest and fled the scene with the knife in hand.

Mabhena, the court heard, was ferried to Mnene District Hospital by relatives, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Mr Kelvin Guveya appeared for the State.