Online Reporter
Danisa Masuku, B-Metro Reporter
IN a shocking case that has left Plumtree residents shaken, a woman described as the “aunt from hell” was dragged before the courts after turning her nieces into modern-day slaves and unleashing savage torture after they escaped.
Sharon Moyo from Plumtree, Matabeleland South, lived with her two teenage nieces as housemaids. When the girls, aged 16 and 18, fled to Botswana in search of a better life, Moyo turned into a hunter and carried out sickening acts of torture that have earned her an 18-month jail sentence.
Driven by rage and revenge, Moyo reportedly hired two thugs to help her track down the girls in Sinyawu Village, Botswana. Once she found them, the teenagers were chained together like criminals. Their hands were bound with a thick chain, locked tight with a padlock, before being dragged back into Zimbabwe like stolen cattle.
She lashed them mercilessly with a sjambok and hit them with a hammer.
By the time they got to Zimbabwe, the evil in Moyo had reached scary proportions.
The 16-year-old was the first to taste Moyo’s wrath. She was whipped mercilessly with a sjambok until her body was covered in welts. Then, like a prisoner of war, she was force-marched to another village where the beatings continued. Moyo lashed her buttocks with full force before handing her a hoe and forcing her to work in the yard the entire day without food or rest.
Her older sister fared no better. Moyo unleashed another sjambok beating, leaving the 18-year-old bleeding and bruised. As punishment for fleeing, she was ordered to hoe the yard all night while her body throbbed with pain.
The teenage girls were held captive for three long days before being released. Bruised and broken, they ran to the police and Moyo’s reign of terror came to a crashing end.
She was hauled before Plumtree magistrate Joshua Nembaware facing two counts of physical abuse. At the end of the trial, justice was served. Moyo was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Six months were suspended, meaning she will spend 12 months behind bars.
Aunt or abuser? Plumtree residents are still asking the same question. But for the battered girls, the scars both physical and emotional will take a lifetime to heal.
Londile Moyo