MOPANI – A well-known taxi owner, Libeko Michael Malatjie (54), was again denied bail when he appeared in the Bolobedu Magistrate's Court on Monday on two counts of murder.

The incident relating to the case took place in the bushes surrounding Gantatho village in the Bolobedu area on Saturday, May 17 this year, at about 18:30. According to the spokesperson of the police in the Mopani Area, Capt Moatshe Ngoepe, the accused received information that his wife, Victoria Malatjie (43), was having a love affair with another man. He was further told that on the day of the incident the woman was in the company of her boyfriend in the nearby bushes. The accused followed them in the bushes and found them having sexual intercourse inside the boyfriend's car. According to the statement the boyfriend saw the accused from a distance and jumped out of the car and started running away in his underwear.

Realising that the man was running away, the accused fired at him from a distance. Several shots hit him in the back but the man vanished in the bushes. After the man's disappearance the accused turned the gun on his wife and shot and killed her instantly.

The accused later phoned the police and told them that he had killed his wife. He further told the police that he had fired several shots at the man who had been in the company of his wife and that the man had vanished into the surrounding bushes.

The police tracked the man and he was found dead some distance away from where the wife had been killed. According to the police statement the man had several bullet wounds in his back. The accused briefly appeared in the same court last Monday, May 19 and was not asked to plead. The case was postponed until Monday, May 26, while the accused was held in custody.

He was again not asked to plead and the case was postponed to June 2 while the accused will be remanded in custody. The boyfriend's name was Samuel Moropeni (48). The police are still investigating the matter.