A FORMER Port Shepstone teacher has pleaded guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder in the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
Simon Thusi (45) was accused of shooting dead grade 11 pupil Sipheshile Kheswa (20) whom he suspected of being his wife’s lover, and the attempted murder of his wife, Bongiwe Thusi.
Magistrate Farida Mohamed sentenced Thusi to 10 years in prison for murder and five for attempted murder. The sentences will run concurrently.
In a statement read by his legal aid lawyer, the court heard that Thusi had last year ‘shot randomly’ after confronting Kheswa, whom he found ‘in the spare room my wife and I use to have sex’. When his wife tried to stop him by grabbing him with both arms, he shot at her too, wounding her in both legs.
Thusi, who worked in Port Shepstone as a teacher and only returned to his Doonside family home at weekends, had been booked off sick when the shooting occurred on September 4 last year. He said he found the house locked and sat under a tree to wait for his wife.
He said his wife came to drop off their two children, aged three and 12, then drove off, returning four hours later with Kheswa, a pupil at Hlengiwe High, where his wife taught.
“I went inside and asked him what he was doing in my house. He said this was his girlfriend’s house. I was so angry and shocked.” It was then that Thusi pulled out his firearm, which he had bought while working in the taxi industry, and fired.
Magistrate Mohamed said Thusi had positioned himself so he could observe what was happening without being seen then, upon realising the two were having an affair, chose to shoot rather than calming himself and attempting to resolve the matter.
