BULAWAYO – A Bulawayo woman has been jailed for two years for hitting a neighbour’s child after she found her and three others bunking school.
Her family has engaged a Bulawayo lawyer to launch an urgent appeal against the sentence.
Panashe Mpofu, 33, flew into a rage after being informed by members of the neighbourhood watch in Old Luveve that her son, two girls and another boy were bunking school and spending daytime at a house whose owners are said to be living in the United Kingdom. The second boy stays at the house.
The West Commonage Magistrates Court heard that Mpofu confronted the quartet on November 8 and used a switch to beat up her son and the two girls after the other boy fled.
The family of one of the girls filed a police report leading to Mpofu’s arrest.
Mpofu, who had no lawyer, pleaded guilty to assault when she appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Vakayi Douglas Chikwekwe.
The magistrate sentenced Mpofu to a two-year jail sentence but conditionally suspended six months, leaving her to serve an effective 18 months in prison.
“Cases of assault are rampant in Bulawayo, not a day goes by without at least five cases being reported and some of these victims end up suffering from disability,” Chikwekwe said before sentencing.
He said in arriving at the sentence he took into account that the victim was a child and she had suffered injuries which were preventing her from attending school. She had also suffered financial prejudice from paying medical bills, the magistrate said.
The victim is a niece of prominent Matopo gold miner Mkhululi Ncube and controversial lawyer Mlweliwenkululeko Ncube.
Mpofu’s family said they planned to appeal the “harsh sentence.”
“This is a parent who was disciplining children who were engaging in wayward behaviour. The parents of this girl should actually be thanking her, not persecuting her,” a family spokesman told ZimLive.
Milton Moyo prosecuted.
