Online Reporter
YESTERDAY, our lead story was about a heartless couple which locked up their 16-year-old son in their house for THREE years.
Herbert Purumero (45), and his wife Memory Kamuchato (40), starved Tinotenda Purumero (16) to such an extent that he ended up feeding up on anything he saw in the room, including his human waste.
This resulted in him suffering from malnutrition.
They locked him up in a room at their house in St Mary’s.
Herbert is the biological father of Tinotenda while Memory is his step-mother.They reside at house number 907 in St Mary’s.
Herbert separated from Tinotenda’s mother, who has since remarried.
Tinotenda ended up suffering from extensive malnutrition and severe bruises on his body suggest that he was being assaulted on numerous occasions.
The couple was sentenced to 24 months in prison by magistrate Dennis Mangosi.
Four months were suspended on condition of good behaviour and they will each serve an effective 20 months for the ill-treatment of Tinotenda.
The teenage boy is currently admitted at a local hospital and he is set to be taken to a care home.
Prosecutor Shamiso Charmaine Mwapangira told the court that from May 2022, the two locked the teenage boy in a very dirty room and denied him access to free movement.
They even denied him access to health care even after noticing that his health was deteriorating.
Most of the time, said the State, the complainant was left in the custody of his 23 year-old sister Paidamoyo Purumero, who is a slow learner.
Their devilish acts affected the teenager’s mental, moral and physiological well-being.
What this appears to suggest is that these are not isolated cases.
This suggests there are many other such cases within our communities and the only difference is that some of those cases are yet to be exposed.
It shows us the extent that some people are prepared to go, for one reason or another, to fix their own children with the kind of cruelty that one does not expect to be coming from human beings.
That is why some people, who have been reacting to this story on our social media platforms, are suggesting that there is more to these cases than what just meets the eye.
They are saying there is a possibility that Tinotenda was being used for some dark arts and a sangoma might have suggested to his father that this is one of the ways for him to get rich.
We are not sure about that.
What we are sure of is that this is unacceptable because no human being should be subjected to such trauma.
And it’s even worse when it comes from parents, the people who are supposed to protect these kids.
Tinotenda isn’t the reason why his father and biological mother separated.
All that he needed was a home which his father is supposed to provide for him.
But, what he got was the kind of horror which would be out of place in a horror movie.
Mathew Masinge