Chronicle Editor
Lisa Mangena, Court Reporter
A 35-YEAR-OLD woman from Bulawayo has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for bashing her four-year-old son after he soiled his pants.
Tendai Nhiwatiwa of Cowdray Park suburb appeared before Western Commonage magistrate, Ms Tancy Dube, facing a charge of ill-treatment or neglect of children and young persons.
She pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 30 months in jail. Six months were suspended for three years on condition that she does not commit a similar offence and 24 months were suspended on condition that she performs 840 hours of community service.
Nhiwatiwa said she hit her son to discipline him.
“I slapped him and hit him with a cooking stick. I did not mean to hurt him the way l did,” she said.
The prosecutor, Mrs Thembeni Mpofu said sometime this month, Nhiwatiwa was at her house with her son when he soiled his pants.
“Nhiwatiwa shouted at the minor before slapping him and assaulting him with a cooking stick. The minor sustained a swollen left eye, forehead, left arm and left leg,” she said.
Nhiwatiwa’s neighbour testified.
She said when she saw the injured minor, she got to know what had happened and made a police report. “The minor told me he had been hit by his mother for soiling his pants,” she said.
I took a picture of him and made a police report.
The police arrested Nhiwatiwa on the same day. — @LissahMangena.
Online Reporter