adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
A 45-YEAR-OLD Mangwe woman will spend the next eight months in prison for scalding her 14-year-old daughter with boiling water. The woman from Empandeni poured water on her daughter as punishment for sleeping with a 32-year-old teacher. The mother, who begged for the court’s leniency, attributed her actions to fury.
“I love my daughter and I have always lectured her on being responsible all the time. I was angry at the thought that my daughter could get infected because of bedding this elderly man.
“My motive was to discipline her and I realised when it was already late that I had poured the water on her. I know that I did a terrible thing but I blame the teacher who was bedding my daughter for all this,” she said.
She pleaded guilty when she appeared before Plumtree magistrate Mr Livard Philemon facing physical abuse charges.
Prosecuting, Mr Clemence Shawarira said the woman splashed the child with boiling water on the chest causing her to sustain severe burns as a result.
He said she scalded her daughter on 8 November.
The mother learnt that her daughter who is a Grade 7 drop-out was sleeping with Celestine Matsika, who is a teacher at Kwite Primary School.
“On 7 November she assigned her daughter to repair a fence at their garden which is near the school. Instead of heading home after completing the job the girl proceeded to her lover’s house,” said Mr Shawarira.
He said the woman learnt that her daughter had been sleeping with the teacher on several occasions and assigned her uncle to collect her and take her to her grandparents’ home for the night.
She also learnt that her daughter would on several occasions proceed to her lover’s home under the pretense of running errands for her mother.
Mr Shawarira said the following morning the fuming mother confronted her daughter over the matter.
In fury she retrieved a stick and assaulted the girl several times on her back. She then poured boiling water which was in a tin that was on a fire on her daughter’s chest.
The girl was hospitalised for one week at Plumtree District Hospital following the vicious attack by her mother.
The woman was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment of which four months were suspended for five years on condition that she does not within the period commit an offence of the same nature.
In passing his sentence Mr Philemon explained that he could not spare her a jail sentence due to the severe injuries sustained by the girl.
Online Reporter