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Sheillah Mapani Herald Reporter
A HARARE woman has been sentenced to an effective one-and-a-half years in prison for deliberately injuring her brother-in-law’s two-year-old daughter after she forced her to hold a hot sweet potato.

Vimbai Muudzwa (20) of Kuwadzana Phase 3, Harare, appeared before Harare magistrate Nomsa Sabarauta charged with contravening section 7 (1) of the Children’s Act for ill-treating a minor.

She was sentenced to 24 months in prison, with six months suspended on condition of good behaviour. In mitigation, Muudzwa told the court that she was only trying to discipline the child.

“The child had a tendency of eating food at my neighbour’s place so I wanted to teach her not to accept food from strangers,” she told the court. The court proved that between July 14 and August 2 this year Muudzwa assaulted the minor with an unknown object before she ordered her to hold a hot sweet potato that had been retrieved from a boiling pot.

Muudzwa then pressed the minor’s hands against the hot potato. Though the child cried out in pain, Muudzwa did not relent. The minor sustained serious burns as a result. Muudzwa was only arrested after an informant alerted police of the minor’s untreated burns.