By Mandilakhe Tshwete

A husband was beaten to death with a golf club by a jealous love rival moments after he had assaulted his own partner.

Manelisi Ntlabezi, 24, went to the shebeen to cool off after a violent quarrel with his wife.

And when he arrived there, he saw a woman who he asked to accompany him to another smokkelhuis.

But her boyfriend saw them together and got angry and allegedly started a fatal fight with Manelisi, who he regarded as a friend.

Manelisi’s wife Siyolise, 23, says: “We had a fight about him going to the shebeen at night.

“At first he wanted to go to his cousin’s home and when I tried to stop, him he slapped me and then I let him go.

“And then later in the night he came back and told me he wanted to go to the shebeen.

“But what I didn’t like is that he wanted to lock me in our home, so when I got up he pinned me down on the bed and told me to go to sleep.”

Siyolise says she told her husband she would rather go to her mother’s place and sleep there.

“I didn’t want to be alone in the shack, especially on a weekend night,” she says.

“He eventually told me to go to my mom’s and said he will go to the shebeen.

“I couldn’t sleep, I just didn’t understand why on that particular night he had to go.

“I thought of going to the shebeen but then I decided to stay at home. Minutes later I heard people making a noise.

“And then a woman came to my mom and told her that my husband had been hurt, he was lying in the road.”

She says she went to the scene and found Manelisi in a pool of blood.

“I heard he was killed because he asked his friend’s girlfriend to walk him to another shebeen.

“Witnesses say the suspect asked why my husband was trying to take his girlfriend from him.

“And then a fight started. I don’t know if my husband tried to defend himself.

She says she knows Manelisi was not cheating on her and that he and the girl were friends.

*This article was published in the Daily Voice