Esigodini woman to wait a little longer for justice

by Staff reporter

2012 May 26 06:55:20 | 1830 Views

A WOMAN who was last year in September sentenced to 90 days in prison for chastising a boy who had let cattle stray into her fields might have to wait longer to know if real justice was done.

Senior Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Ndou sitting with Justice Maphios Cheda as an Appeal Court, reserved judgment in an appeal against sentence by Pauline Moyo.

The judges said they needed time to go through submissions made by the defence and State counsels.

Ncube (46), of Stand 7, Zimbili B, Esigodini pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 90 days in prison.

The facts of the matter are that on 20 January 2010, at about 2pm, an 11-year-old boy was herding cattle when they strayed into her fields.

She noticed the cattle destroying her maize crop and drove them away and then called the boy and struck him twice on the head with a stick resulting in him sustaining a laceration.

Not happy with the sentence, Moyo lodged an appeal through her lawyer, Mr Kenneth Lubimbi, of Kenneth Lubimbi and Partners arguing that the trial magistrate misdirected himself in holding that imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence for the offence.

Mr Lubimbi submitted that this was a case where a woman was chastising a child whose negligence led to the destruction of her maize crop by the cattle he was herding and that although her conduct was unlawful and should be discouraged, a custodial sentence was too harsh and induced a sense of shock in his client.

He noted that the medical affidavit states that the boy suffered a laceration and that although describing the injury as serious, it also states that there was no danger to life.

In response, Mr Lewis Maunze, of the Attorney General's Office although initially held that the magistrate was correct in arriving at the sentence he did, he later made a u-turn after the production of the medical affidavit and said the sentence imposed was severe.

Esigodini Court

Source: Tc