The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa Weekender Correspondent
A GIMBOKI man allegedly forced his two-year-old niece to eat her own waste as punishment after she had soiled her diapers. Takemore Muti Sithole (25) denied the charges of ill-treating his niece when he appeared in court on Monday.
Sithole is being charged with ill-treating or neglecting a child and is alleged to have contravened Section 7 (1) as read with Section 7(2) of the Children’s Act. Mutare provincial magistrate Mrs Sekai Chiundura presided over the matter, while Mr Fletcher Karombe prosecuted.
Allegations are that during the period between October and November 30, and on several occasions, Sithole locked his sister’s two-year-old daughter in the house for the whole day while he was away. He forced the minor to eat her own waste whenever she soiled herself. He was staying with the child.
Sithole is also alleged to have assaulted the toddler and failed to give her food as punishment for soiling herself. Mr Karombe said Sithole neglected and exposed the two-year-old child in a manner which was likely to cause her unnecessary suffering or detrimental to her health or any part or function of her mind or body.
“Assaulting the child, locking her inside the house, forcing her to eat her own stool when she had messed herself are actions that are likely to cause her physical or mental distress or harm. By doing so, the accused person acted unlawfully,” said Mr Karombe.
Mrs Chiundura told Sithole that the court does not force people to plead guilty and that the matter would go to trial and the truth will come out. However, she warned him that if he was wasting the court’s time and denying a crime that he knew he had committed, fate would catch up with him on the day of sentencing. Shaking uncontrollably while in the dock, Sithole said he had been forced to look after the child by his sister who lives in Hwedza.
“She threatened that if I refused to look after her daughter, she would disown me as her brother. However, Your Worship, I did not force the child to eat her own stool. I do not know how the court has come to have such facts,” he said.
Sithole told the court that he had been looking after the child for four months together with his wife whom unfortunately had gone to attend a funeral when he was arrested.
“My sister came and collected her child last week and she has since left for Hwedza with her,” he told the court.
Sithole was remanded in custody to December 29 for trial.
