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Codelia Mondela, Court Reporter
A STUDENT teacher from Hugh Beadle Primary School in Northend suburb, Bulawayo has been arraigned for allegedly beating up a Grade Five learner with a plastic rod for poor handwriting.
Zibusiso Msimanga (23) from Sauerstown suburb allegedly struck the 10-year-old six times with the plastic rod on the back in January this year.
Msimanga was not asked to plead to charges of ill treating a child before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Franklin Mkhwananzi who remanded him out of custody to Friday for provision of a trial date.
Prosecuting, Mr Maclean Ndlovu said Msimanga was with his mentor Mr Sibusiso Ndlovu when he assaulted the child with the plastic rod that is about 30cm long.
“Accused person called for order while holding a plastic rod and gave the learners an exercise to write. As the learners were writing, Msimanga started moving around stating that he wanted to beat those with poor handwriting,” the prosecutor said.
“He reached the complainant and assaulted him with the plastic rod several times on the back. The child sustained six bruises on the back as a result of the assault.”
In July last year, a teacher from Herentals Group of Colleges in Victoria Falls was fined $150 for beating a Form Three pupil who had not done his homework.
Kudakwashe Bere (34) of Chinotimba suburb, who teaches Computer Science and Computers, was arrested for beating the pupil after he noticed that he had not written school notes.
In 2016, a teacher at Hillside Primary School in Bulawayo burst into tears as she begged the mother of a pupil she allegedly assaulted with an electric cable to withdraw charges before the case could be heard in court.
Olivia Ndlovu (58) allegedly beat up the Grade Seven pupil for being “dull.”
@MondelaC
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