Police Officer Faces Murder Trial for Chopping Off Another Man’s Hand over his Wife

In South Africa, a former policeman who was charged with attempted murder for allegedly chopping off the hand of a man he accused of having an affair with his wife will now face a murder charge after the victim apparently succumbed to his injuries.

Mzamani Nocky Makhuva appeared before magistrate Albert Mudau in the Malamulele regional court on a charge of attempted murder this week.

He was charged after he allegedly chopped off a High School teacher Hasani Chauke’s hand with a sharp object, after accusing him of having an affair with his wife.

But before the trial could go on, the prosecution and his lawyer Freddy Makamu told Mudau that there were new developments in the case that would make it impossible for the attempted murder trial to go on.

It emerged that Chauke had died after Makhuva, who had been hounding him for a long time, had allegedly chopped him to death.

Mudau postponed the attempted murder case to February 27, saying with the new developments, the prosecutor would send the attempted murder and murder dockets to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision.

Scores of people demonstrated outside the court and didn’t seem to know that Makhuva was not appearing on murder charges. They were angry and hardly listened to their leaders when they told them the case was postponed.

They held placards and bayed for Makhuva’s blood.

“Let us give the law a chance, when it [is] time to take the law into our own hands, we shall tell you but [for] now, things are going as we expect them to,” said community leader Peter Shirinda.

Shirinda said the community was enraged after learning that Makhuva had been separated from his wife for five years at the time he was apparently harassing Chauke.