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Lisa Mangena, Court Reporter
A 40-YEAR-OLD woman from Bulawayo has been sentenced to 24 months in prison for ill-treating her two minor children by dumping them and not providing for their education after her husband’s death.
Vuya Ncube from Nkulumane suburb neglected her two children, a 13-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy whose names are being withheld to protect their identities.
The children are not going to school and the younger one has no birth certificate.
Ncube would leave the children on their own for lengthy periods while she visited boyfriends.
She appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Mr Stephen Ndlovu and pleaded guilty to two counts of ill-treating a child or alternatively neglecting a child.
Ncube was sentenced to 24 months in prison of which six months were suspended for five years on the condition that she does not commit a similar offence within that period.
The remaining 18 months were suspended on condition that she performs 630 hours of community service at Mandwandwe High School.
In defence, Ncube said she was not aware that it was a criminal offence to leave a child without adult supervision.
“I think of my children all the time and l don’t know why l neglected them the way l did. I would like to apologise to the court for my behaviour,” she said.
Ncube denied having multiple boyfriends.
The prosecutor, Mr Kenneth Shava said sometime in 2008, Ncube dumped her two children at her aunt’s home and one of them was sick.
“The minor was taken to hospital where he was treated and was later taken to his great grandmother where he lived for a while before Ncube fetched him. While at his grandmother’s house, the minor dropped out of school as he had no birth certificate and his grandmother could not afford school fees for him,” he said.
The court heard that Ncube’s 13-year-old child also dropped out of school due to financial problems.
Mr Shava said Ncube would cohabit with different boyfriends and whenever she took her children to live with her she would later dump them and move to another place.
The court heard that Ncube’s 11-year-old child has no birth certificate.
Ncube said she tried to get her 11-year-old child a birth certificate after her husband’s death but her aunts refused to help her.
— @LissahMangena.
Online Reporter