adminMashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
A BULAWAYO primary school teacher who assaulted a Grade One pupil resulting in the boy accidentally stabbing himself with a sharp pencil in the head, yesterday applied for discharge at the close of the state case. Sibongile Nyathi, 54, of Nketa suburb, who is a teacher at Hugh Beadle Primary School, appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Marylin Mutshina facing a charge of assaulting Takundanashe Chinema, 6, for failing to space words in sentences using his finger.
The boy is lucky to be alive after staying for two months with a piece of the pencil in his head which broke off when he was allegedly assaulted by the teacher in March.
In her application through her lawyers, Edzai Matika and Chipo Mahlangu of Munyaradzi Gwisai and Partners, Nyathi argued that the state had failed to link her to the alleged crime.
Nyathi further argued that the charges were trumped up and meant to tarnish her image.
The victim’s mother, Debra Chinema, on Wednesday took to the witness stand and narrated how her son endured two months of agonising pain with the pencil stub lodged in his head. She also told the court that they consulted several doctors and surgeons at the United Bulawayo Hospitals and Mpilo Central Hospital who failed to detect the foreign object in her son’s head until it came out of the wound on its own two months later.
Prosecuting, Danmore Kasenza said on March 12 at around 8AM, Nyathi was teaching Takundanashe how to write sentences by putting a finger between words to create space.
She got frustrated when the boy continuously failed to grasp the concept resulting in her assaulting him with an open hand. The court heard that in trying to avoid the slap, the boy accidentally stabbed himself with a pencil in the head. He sustained a deep wound and a swollen right eye and was rushed to the UBH for treatment.
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