Johannesburg - Former radio presenter Donald “Donald Duck” Sebolai told the the High Court sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court that he didn't think slapping someone was assault, but rather a case of reprimanding them.
“You know assault is a broad word, I wasn't assaulting that much, the assault I'm talking about is to slap a person.”
He stated that he didn't consider slapping someone as assault, but rather reprimanding them and keeping them away.
Sebolai was found guilty of murdering his 32-year-old girlfriend, Rachel “Dolly” Tshabalala.
He stabbed her several times in the lower abdomen and left her to bleed to death in her Soweto flat on 29 June 2014.
Testifying in mitigation of sentence, Sebolai told the court on Monday that he had never slapped anyone in a fighting manner and it was not his intention to hurt the other person.
Sebolai told the court that he had no previous convictions and denied that he was a violent person.
Defence attorney Thabang Mathopo had earlier put it to Sebolai that there was evidence that he had been abusive to women.
Sebolai later told the court that the incident in which Tshabalala was killed was the worst pain he had ever felt. “I feel as if I can reverse everything,” Sebolai said.
”If there was someone who was there to come and explain to the court of what happened and I'm aware that the deceased family has already experienced pain.”
He broke into tears and put his head into his hands.
State Prosecutor Elize Le Roux asked Sebolai to clarify whether she understood correctly that he had said he wished there was someone else there the day Tshabalala died.
“Yes,” he said, adding that he wished there was an eyewitness who could corroborate his story. Le Roux asked Sebolai if he didn't agree with the court's ruling on the case.
“On that day we were fighting for the knife, I didn't stab her,” he replied.
She asked if he intended to appeal his conviction.
“I didn't stab Dolly, we were fighting for the knife and I wanted to disarm her,” he said, while crying.
He then told the court that he understood and saw that Tshabalala was not around anymore and that she had been a breadwinner in her family.
Le Roux said that Sebolai's psychologist had testified that he had admitted to slapping two women on previous occasions and that he had never said it was just to reprimand them.
“It is like that, I wasn't assaulting them, I was was keeping them away from me,” he replied.
Le Roux said she would argue that the psychologist's evidence, as well as the evidence brought to the court, showed that he was someone who used to abuse the women in his life.
“I deny that, because Dolly was very clever. If I was someone who was always abusing her, she should take me to the police.”
Le Roux argued that Tshabalala had taken him to the police but that she had forgiven him.
Sebolai continued to argue that that wasn't true, to which Le Roux said: “You still continue to not take responsibility of your behaviour and your actions.”
Le Roux added that his only regret was that he was arrested. Asked about his upbringing, Sebolai said: “I was raised well in a home with my mother and father, as well as my sisters and cousins.”
Sebolai said he had three children of his own and told the court that he was the one supporting them financially and emotionally, prior to his arrest.
“I played my role as a father,” he said.
Mathopo asked Sebolai who would be looking after his family if he was no longer around.
“I am asking myself the same thing because my mother will be on pension soon.”
African News Agency
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