The Sunday News
Fairness Moyana in Hwange
A HWANGE woman heaved a sigh of relief after she was spared jail for community service after being convicted of dumping her stillborn child at a dumpsite in apparent fear of her husband’s reaction.
Sinikiwe Mumpande (23) of K8 Lusumbami Village in Hwange had a stillbirth which she concealed by dumping the baby in a rubbish pit. She appeared before Hwange provincial magistrate, Mr Gift Ntandi Dube facing a charge of concealing birth of stillborn child. She was slapped with a six months imprisonment term which was wholly suspended on condition that she performs 210 hours of community service at Lusumbami Primary School.
The court heard that on 17 November 2019 at about 5.30pm at house Number K8 Mumpande had a stillbirth alone and wrapped the body in a baby blanket. She went on to put the body into her handbag and dumped it at dump site.
When her husband, Lovemore Ndlovu returned from work she told him that only blood clots came out of her private parts and she flushed them in the toilet.
On 19 November at around 5pm the body of the stillborn child was discovered at the dumpsite by children who were playing. Information about the discovery was received by Ndlovu who went to the dumpsite and positively identified à baby blanket and a white handbag as that of his wife. The body of the baby was wrapped in the blanket.
The matter was reported to the police and investigations led to the arrest of Mumpande. She was taken to St Patrick’s Hospital for medical examination while the body of the stillborn was referred to UBH for post-mortem. The forensic pathologist medical certificate of the stillborn revealed that it was 38 weeks old. Mr Trymore Chitumbu represented the State.
