Mixed luck for couple accused Of Cruelty

Lebogang Baingapi | Monday November 2, 2015 15:49

 

However as for his wife, Pelonomi Ungwang the state proved beyond reasonable doubt she cruelly assaulted her stepson as she claimed the child practised witchcraft.

The court heard that on March 18, 2013 the couple who are in custody of the child, caused multiple injuries to the said child thereby subjecting him to cruelty and human degrading. The court also recordsed that a medical doctor, Indiya Umaga testified that she observed bruises over the body, open sores in the buttocks which can have resulted from a stick or belt beatings.A guidance and counselling teacher at Jwana Primary School said the child was admitted in mid-2012 and she observed that the child was perpetually looking dirty and lonely and not mingling with others. She approached his class teacher who called the stepmother to school. The guidance and counselling teacher said the stepmother  revealed that she flogged the boy  as he is a nuisance and that he practises witchcraft. The teacher further testified that the stepmother told them that the boy walks around the house at night and she was fed up.According to the teacher, matters came to a head on March 19, 2013 when the child arrived late for the 3pm study with swollen hands. The boy told the teachers that  his stepmother had ordered her to put all her hands on the table and beat him with a moretlwa stick. The teacher also observed other injuries, scars on the back, buttocks and thighs as well as tear stains on his face.

“We took the boy to the social workers who refered the matter to the police. A case was opened and the first accused person, the father,  said it was his first time to see scars on his son.

In court, the child testified that his stepmother cruelly assaulted him and later asked one  of her sons  by the name of  Kgosi to join in in the assault after the child failed to bath as instructed.

The boy said the accused told him to go outside the house where drenched him with cold water using a hosepipe. He also alleged that when his father arrived, he also assaulted him after the mother reported that he stole a yoghurt. In defence, the father told court that he was not there when the offence occurred as he was deployed at the Trans-Kalahari highway as a police officer and he arrived home late and  found the boy asleep.

The following day he was approached by his seniors who revealed that his son had been cruelly beaten and that he, the father, was also a suspect. He (the father) denied ever beating him. He said instead the boy used to be lashed by his teachers at Sepako Primary school before he moved to Jwana Primary, where the cruel treatment was continued by his class teacher.

He said the social workers had asked that the child be taken back to his biological mother because the step mother, and not him, abused him. The accused said the mother had brought the child to him because he always missed school and stay at the cattle post. He also said at Jwana Primary School, teachers had said the boy was a nuisance as he beat up others and stole their belongings. He concluded that the social workers did not do thorough investigations as they based everything on assumptions, but he was of the view that the stepmother and son have a cordial relationship.

The stepmother also admitted in court that she indeed flogged the child as a disciplinary measure for failing to do house chores. She said    that on that day, he did not bath and he beat him with a moretlwa stick but  could not account for  the scars on  his body.

Magistrate Keakantse noted inconsistency in evidence that linked the father to the offence as the boy could not remember the time his father assaulted him. She said prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he subjected him to treatment that amounted to torture, cruelty and human degrading. She discharged and acquitted him accordingly. As for the stepmother, the court said it was not disputed that she assaulted the accused and asked her son Kgosi, to join in. She said the medical report also recorded open wounds and swollen hands. Keakantse noted that disciplinary corporal punishment is allowed but it is prohibited when administered excessively. She added that the state failed to establish whether the accused acted together in the offence and she acquitted the first accused and convicted the stepmother for the charge. She will appear again on November 10 for presentation of previous convictions if any.