Sickly 4 Year Old Dies After Bulawayo, Father, Habitually Assaulted, And Systematically Starved Her

Nqobile Tembo, 31, of Emganwini suburb, has been charged with murder following the death of his daughter Blessing. The little girl died on Tuesday at Mpilo Central Hospital where she had been admitted in a critical condition.

Tembo initially appeared in court on March 24 charged with ill treatment and neglect of the minor. At the time, the emaciated tot was admitted to hospital after Tembo cable-whipped her for refusing to eat when she was sick.

Provincial magistrate Abednico Ndebele had remanded him in custody to April 6. The charge has been altered to murder following the death of his daughter and magistrate Ndebele further remanded Tembo in custody to April 13.

Tembo told the court he was caring for the sickly girl after her mother ran away to South Africa. The prosecutor, Stewart Madzore, said the cause of death has been attributed to physical abuse among other elements.

“The post mortem report shows that death of the child was as a result of physical abuse, chronic malnutrition and pulmonary tuberculosis. Therefore the State would like the initial charge against the accused to be amended to a murder charge,” he said .

In a warned and cautioned statement, Sazini Banda, the stepmother to the child, said Tembo assaulted the child with an electric cable. “I never abused or assaulted my stepdaughter. It was her father who always assaulted her using an electrical cable,” said Banda.

Rhoda Moyo, the child’s grandmother, reported the abuse to the police leading to Tembo’s arrest. Moyo, in her warned and cautioned statement, said she discovered the abuse after she visited the girl.