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Nkosizile Ndlovu
A MENTALY challenged teenager died due to suffocation when his uncle left him locked in a car with closed windows.
This was heard when the uncle, Herbert Chipango (23) appeared before Bulawayo regional magistrate Sibongile Msipa-Marondedze facing culpable homicide charges.
Circumstances as presented by the prosecutor, Lerato Tshuma are that on 8 December 2016 at 10 am, Chipango received a phone call from his brother-in- law Mhlomuli Sibanda (deceaseda��s father) instructing him to meet his sister Maureen Chipango (deceaseda��s mother) in town at the City Hall.
Maureen was to arrive from Filabusi where she works.
a�?After the phone call, the accused drove a BMW with the now deceased inside and parked the car near the main gate of Llewellin Baracks. He left the now deceased who was mentally challenged inside the motor vehicle with all windows and doors locked,a�? said the prosecutor.
Chipango went to Bulawayo City Hall using a commuter omnibus and returned a few hours later with the deceaseda��s mother only to be met by the horrific development.
a�?When they returned, they found the now deceased bleeding from the nose and mouth. He had blisters on both legs and arms due to suffocation. The accused pulled the child out of the car and sought help. An army doctor based at the barracks attended to the scene and confirmed the death of the child,a�? said Tshuma.
A postmortem was done at United Bulawayo Hospitals and the cause of the death was ashyxes in bronchea aspiration in suffocation.
Chipango who pleaded guilty could not hold back his tears throughout the court hearing on Tuesday.
He was sentenced to four years in jail wholly suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence in the next five years.
derick.khumalo