It’s the end of what many thought was a fairytale.
Nasty details of a marriage breaking down are being aired out at the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court as a couple fights in the courtroom.
Dr Yolisa Siphambo-Mngxali has turned to the court, accusing her estranged husband Siphiwo Mngxali of breaching a protection order obtained because of domestic violence.
They had gotten married in community in property in December 1996.
He also stands accused of theft at their Fortgale home in Mthatha and the attempted murder of two people who were at the house on 26 February. Fundiswa Mtsolo, the helper and her husband Sbu Mtsolo were the ones at a house in Fortgale. The property is operating as a B&B.
The couple does not live together anymore.
Siphiwo says he still has the keys to the house and has been legally advised that you cannot steal something that belongs to you.
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But more importantly, he says he can prove he was not even in Mthatha on the day of the said robbery where things were taken from the house. He says he was in East London.
He was arrested on 8 March.
On Wednesday, before magistrate Melikhaya Dyakopi, detective constable Wandile Tshaka testified that releasing Siphiwo on bail would endanger Yolisa’s life. He also told the court the state has video footage of the break-in and Yolisa confirmed the person in the video was her husband.
The house, according to court papers, was sold to the Mngxali Family Trust.
Yesterday, Siphiwo’s defence team presented to the court a warrant of arrest against Yolisa saying that she too had been in breach of a previously issued protection order and the police did not effect an arrest in that instant.
Drum is in possession of court documents which reveal Siphiwo accused his wife of physical, psychological, emotional, verbal and financial abuse in the application for a protection order.
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Advocate Lusindiso Matotie, on Siphiwo’s behalf, told the court that the state’s reason for opposing bail should not be taken for consideration for a number of reasons.
“In another application, before another court, Yoilsa alleges that the physical abuse relating to the pointing of a firearm happened in 2008. The state’s case is weak.”
The defence says because the house was transferred to a family trust by the couple. They are both trustees to that trust. They argue that Yolisa does not have a claim and that if any wrongdoing had taken place, the trust would have been the complainant.
The matter has postponed to 27 March for further evidence.
The accused recently went viral after his children accused him of violence against his wife, with hundreds of people calling for justice.
