News / Africa
Man bust burying beheaded wife in yard
14 Feb 2013 at 07:05hrs | Views
A 40-YEAR-OLD Ekurhuleni man is facing a murder charge after being caught red-handed by police digging a shallow grave for his wife's torso.
Stanley Modikane was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning at his home in Mayfield extension 5, Daveyton, Johannesburg, after allegedly beheading his wife Phumeza, with whom he had fathered three children.
Phumeza was murdered on Monday night.
It is alleged that Modikane had instructed his children - a 14-year-old boy and two girls aged 4 and 10 - to keep their mother's death a secret because her head would "bring riches" to their home and he would then be able to find them a new mother.
His children are said to have found him talking to their mother's head in the bathroom.
The 14-year-old saw his chance to escape and stumbled into police officers patrolling the neighbourhood. He led them to the scene where his father was busy digging his wife's grave.
Community members expressed shock at the incident, saying Modikane was a quiet man whom they had never seen smoking, drinking or fighting with anyone.
He was described as someone who kept to himself, with no known friends except fellow congregants at his church.
Both he and his wife were unemployed. Phumeza ran a public phone service from their home.
"How can anyone do this to another person?
"He is lucky the police got to him before we did," a group of women shouted at the crime scene.
Local ward councillor Makgaba Kgopa, who visited the scene, called a meeting of community leaders.
"We must find a way to prevent this sort of thing in our community. We want to build unity among neighbours because it is also shocking that something like this can happen and immediate neighbours claim they heard and saw nothing," Kgopa said.
Modikane appeared in the Benoni Magistrate's Court yesterday and was warned that the charge he was facing carried a life sentence.
The matter was postponed to February 19 to allow him to apply for legal aid.
Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele said: "This is one of the most barbaric, heinous and sick incidents I have ever been exposed to. What is this world coming to when you have people who can do such crazy things to another human being, especially the one person who has given you children and whom you claim to love?
"Here is someone who has not only killed his wife, but has also allegedly committed a major crime against his children. Can you imagine the effect this incident will have on the kids?
"His poor children now have to undergo unending therapy just because someone who is supposed to look after them decided to end their mother's life in such a barbaric fashion in their presence."
Stanley Modikane was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning at his home in Mayfield extension 5, Daveyton, Johannesburg, after allegedly beheading his wife Phumeza, with whom he had fathered three children.
Phumeza was murdered on Monday night.
It is alleged that Modikane had instructed his children - a 14-year-old boy and two girls aged 4 and 10 - to keep their mother's death a secret because her head would "bring riches" to their home and he would then be able to find them a new mother.
His children are said to have found him talking to their mother's head in the bathroom.
The 14-year-old saw his chance to escape and stumbled into police officers patrolling the neighbourhood. He led them to the scene where his father was busy digging his wife's grave.
Community members expressed shock at the incident, saying Modikane was a quiet man whom they had never seen smoking, drinking or fighting with anyone.
He was described as someone who kept to himself, with no known friends except fellow congregants at his church.
"How can anyone do this to another person?
"He is lucky the police got to him before we did," a group of women shouted at the crime scene.
Local ward councillor Makgaba Kgopa, who visited the scene, called a meeting of community leaders.
"We must find a way to prevent this sort of thing in our community. We want to build unity among neighbours because it is also shocking that something like this can happen and immediate neighbours claim they heard and saw nothing," Kgopa said.
Modikane appeared in the Benoni Magistrate's Court yesterday and was warned that the charge he was facing carried a life sentence.
The matter was postponed to February 19 to allow him to apply for legal aid.
Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele said: "This is one of the most barbaric, heinous and sick incidents I have ever been exposed to. What is this world coming to when you have people who can do such crazy things to another human being, especially the one person who has given you children and whom you claim to love?
"Here is someone who has not only killed his wife, but has also allegedly committed a major crime against his children. Can you imagine the effect this incident will have on the kids?
"His poor children now have to undergo unending therapy just because someone who is supposed to look after them decided to end their mother's life in such a barbaric fashion in their presence."
Source - Sapa
