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Mathew Masinge
A MAN and his partner have been sentenced to 12 months in jail for locking two children in a room without food or water.
Simbarashe Mabuwana (38) and Fiona Mapuranga (28) were initially sentenced to 15 months by Harare magistrate Tsitsi Chitatu, who suspended threee months on condition of good behaviour.
Mabuwana and Mapuranga were found guilty of ill-treating and neglecting the two children aged four and one, who were fathered by Mabuwana in a previous marriage.
The couple had taken custody of the children from their mother, Sikoliwe Masaiti, after she visited the pair to collect maintenance, but was ordered to leave the children with her ex-partner’s new lover.
An informant later found the children in bad shape, locked inside a room.
It was proved by the State that on December 31 last year, Masaiti visited the couple with the intention of collecting maintenance from Mabuwana after he had defaulted for four months.
They ordered her to leave the children and she obliged.
However, upon request to see the children sometime in August, an informant discovered that the children were in bad shape and locked in a room.
The two minors were interviewed and they revealed how they used to go for long hours without food. They were sometimes beaten and were always locked inside a room.
They also could not talk or walk properly.
A report was made at Waterfalls Police Station and the two kids were taken to Sally Mugabe Hospital for medicals.
Kate Kamanda appeared for the State.
Bongani Ndlovu
Mathew Masinge