A WOMAN and her mother escaped death by a whisker when her husband set his mother-in-law’s bedroom hut on fire after accusing his wife of infidelity.

The court heard Ayibongwe Sibanda (34), who is from Mbembesi received a tip-off from a villager that his wife Faith was two-timing him with a man from the village.
It is said after that Ayibongwe accused his wife of leasing his sexual goodies to the man.

An argument then ensued and her husband grabbed her. She, however, managed to break free from her husband’s tight grip and ran to her mother’s homestead.
Ayibongwe, the court heard, followed later. He knocked on her mother-in-law’s bedroom hut door but she was not there.

“He banged the door while hurling insults. He accused his mother-in-law of influencing his wife to cheat on him resulting in him losing his dignity in the community,” the court heard.

It is said it took the intervention of an elderly man from the community to quell the ugly situation. Ayibongwe returned to his homestead.

However, after two days Ayibongwe once again heard from the grapevine that his wife was seeing another man in the village and it seems that stoked his anger leading him to dash to his mother-in-law’s homestead. The court heard he found them gathered around the fire place. He thrashed his wife with a rope.

His mother-in-law shuffled to a neighbour’s homestead where she sought refuge.

In a bid to vent his anger, Ayibongwe set her mother-in-law’s bedroom hut on fire, the court heard.

After that he fled and was caught by detectives near Plumtree Border Post.

During a full trial before Bulawayo magistrate Stephen Ndlovu, he was found guilty of malicious damage to property.-B-Metro