A ZVISHAVANE woman and her husband’s friend were each slapped with eight year jail terms for assaulting the woman’s 10-year-old stepson for three hours, leading to his death.

The duo, Kainos Shoko, 58, and Enita Zanamwe, 54, both from Zvishavane had pleaded not guilty to murder. Justice Nokuthula Moyo of the Bulawayo High Court, sitting at the Gweru Circuit Court convicted the pair of a lesser charge of culpable homicide.

Shoko and Zanamwe assaulted Tawanda Makoto, accusing him of being mischievous sometime in 2013, leading to his death. Justice Moyo said the courts frowned on the loss of life for whatever reasons.

“In a bid to chastise, both accused persons were negligent resulting in the fatal assault which caused the child’s death as confirmed by the post mortem results and therefore the court finds you guilty of culpable homicide.

“It’s high time parents out there know that the courts will not tolerate loss of lives of innocent children through heavy handed chastising. In fact this was more than chastising. It’s domestic violence and child abuse,” she said. The judge sentenced each of the duo to 10 years imprisonment and suspended two years from the individual sentences on condition of good behaviour.

Prosecuting, Mirirai Shumba told the court that on February 13, 2013 at around 6PM, Zanamwe and the boy arrived home from the market.

The court heard that Shoko sat at the veranda.

Shoko told the court that his friend, who is Zanamwe’s husband, had assigned him to look after his family while he was away. “At around 8PM, the duo started assaulting the deceased who they said was mischievous and the assault persisted to about 11PM,”he said.

“At that point Zanamwe was shouting and ordering the deceased to take a bath while the deceased was pleading with her stating that he was unable to bath himself.”

Shumba said as a result of the assault by the two accused persons, the deceased died the following morning.

The court heard that Zanamwe told the police that the deceased had died of a headache. However, a post mortem was conducted and it concluded that the deceased had died due to assault.

The two were then arrested for murder. by Elizabeth Tsuro