The ManicaPost
Weekender Correspondent
A WOMAN from Mutare’s Dangamvura high-density suburb who was entrusted by a friend to look after her house while she attended a church service in Harare has been slapped with a six months jail term for causing a fire that gutted down the property.
The resultant inferno rendered 56-year-old Rhoda Makuyana and her family homeless.
Susan Tome who was looking after the house left a lit candle and went out with her husband to sleep elsewhere.
Fire broke out at night, destroying property worth thousands of dollars.
Tome (28) appeared before the courts facing charges of negligently causing serious damage to property as defined in Section 141 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.
She was convicted on her own guilty plea and was sentenced to six months imprisonment.
The sentence was wholly suspended on condition that she restitutes Makuyana by May 31.
Mr Tendai Mahwe presided over the matter as Mr Fletcher Karombe prosecuted.
In mitigation, Tome told the court that she had forgotten to put out the candle when she had escorted her husband who had visited her. She said they later slept out.
Asked on why she had not slept with her husband at Makuyana’s house, Tome said the former had asked her not to bring visitors to her home.
“Your Worship, she had asked me not to bring visitors for sleepovers at her house while she was away so I went and slept with my husband elsewhere.”
